HENDERSON, Nev. – The UC San Diego men’s basketball team has been in the Las Vegas area since Wednesday, just not adjusting to the rims inside the Lee’s Family Forum.
Because the Big West men’s and women’s tournaments are held concurrently in the 5,567-seat facility that is home to a minor-league hockey team, the top-seeded Tritons were allowed only a 25-minute session Friday morning for an abbreviated shootaround to acclimate to dark backdrop and castle turrets behind one basket.
“Hey, it shouldn’t affect our defense,” coach Eric Olen quipped before the game.
Prescient words. It was the Tritons’ defense, not their high-octane offense, that saved them Friday night in a 69-51 victory against UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals and put them one game from the NCAA Tournament, incredibly, in their first year of full Division I membership.
That will come Saturday here at 6:40 p.m. against second-seeded UC Irvine, which split the season series with the Tritons and overcame its own slow start to roll Cal Poly 96-78 in the late semi.
The danger of the conference tournament in what historically has been a one-bid league is the added pressure of winning it – or else.
Whether it was the lack of familiarity with the medieval-themed arena – a giant sign in the concourse for the Las Vegas Silver Knights says “always advance, never retreat” – or the lack of familiarity with the anxiety accompanying the stakes, the Tritons came out flat and stayed that way through the first half.
The team averaging 80.3 points missed seven of its first nine shots and four of its first five free throws en route to a mere 26 points, their fewest in a half since scoring 22 at San Diego State in a season-opening loss.
But it doesn’t much matter when you hold your opponent to 26.7% shooting, 20.7% in the second half.
UCSB’s 3-point shooting: 6 of 35.
“Defense is something we can control,” said senior guard Hayden Gray, the national leader in steals who tied the Big West single-season record with two more Friday night. “A lot of it is effort. We know offense will take care of itself, and we know we have a lot of talented offensive players.
“But locking in on the defensive end and just giving that max effort, that’s what we want, that’s what we can control and that’s how we’ve been able to win some games when the offense isn’t clicking.”
It finally was in the second half, shooting 53.8% and pulling away from the fifth-seeded Gauchos with a 15-0 run fueled by a technical foul against junior guard Ben Shtolzberg on a play that just as easily could have been a foul against the Tritons.
Shtolzberg was aggressively trapped by two defenders on the sideline and tried to pivot through it, appearing to draw contact on the arms and face. The nearest official whistled a jump ball instead, and Shtolzberg shoved a Triton player in frustration.
“My player said he got contact to the head, got knocked to the head, and he responded,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said, “and he got a technical. That’s what my player told me.”
Gray was asked if it fired up the Tritons.
“For sure it did,” Gray said. “It was a great energy boost for us. We knew we had them a little rattled at that point, and we were able to capitalize on that.”
The T gave the Tritons two free throws, which Tyler McGhie made. And the possession, which ended in a high-arching, fallaway baseline jumper by Gray.
That was followed by a fast-break layup from Chris Howell, then back-to-back 3s by Aidan Burke and Nordin Kapic before Pasternack decided that, yeah, his team might need a timeout down 14.
The exhausted Gauchos (21-13) never got closer than nine the rest of the way, and the Tritons (29-4) could turn their attention to the 40 minutes that separate them from the Big Dance.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones showed why he was named Big West player of the year, nearly logging a triple-double with 20 points, eight rebounds and nine assists (plus three blocks) in 32 minutes.
“I started rough,” Tait-Jones said of missing two free throws early in the game, “but my teammates in the huddle kept telling me, ‘Keep getting to the line, that’s what you do.’”
McGhie and Kapic each had 13 points, and Gray added 11 points. The Tritons had only three turnovers, which tied the season low, and a 28-14 edge in points in the paint.
The Tritons trailed 27-26 at the half, which gives you an idea of what kind of roll they’ve been on. They hadn’t trailed at intermission since January, a game at Hawaii they came back to win by 11.
But that’s what happens when you miss two-thirds of your shots, are 3 of 13 behind the arc (23.1%), clank six of 13 free throws and get crushed on the boards.
Despite the slow start, the Tritons still led 19-13 thanks to their defense and seemed ready to take control of the game.
Premature, it turned out. The Gauchos erupted for an 11-0 run that included a pair of contested, desperation 3s at the shot clock buzzer. It compelled Olen to call a timeout to break momentum, a rarity for a team that has won 13 straight and 11 of them by double digits.
He calmed down his team, knowing fatigue would eventually be their friend. The Tritons were playing their first game in six days, the Gauchos their third in just over 48 hours.
“We knew they were on their third game in three days,” said Olen, whose team had a bye to the semifinals as one of the top two seeds. “Our approach was talking about playing as hard as we can on every possession, and we felt we could sustain that effort for 40 minutes better than them given what they had to do in the last couple days.
“I always expect that we have a run coming. These guys have been doing this all year, whether it’s in the first half or second half or whenever. It always feels like it’s coming. … We felt like at some point it would turn for us, and we’re fortunate that it did.”
Originally Published: March 14, 2025 at 8:17 PM PDT
