UC San Diego’s men’s basketball team saw its five-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday night with a 75-71 loss to Cal State Fullerton at Titan Gym. The Titans overcame a 12-point second-half deficit, taking the lead for the first time since early in the game with just 21 seconds left.
Josh Ward led Fullerton’s comeback, scoring 16 points after halftime. With this win, Cal State Fullerton (16-15) moves into a tie with UC San Diego in The Big West standings. Both teams now have an 11-8 record in conference play, alongside UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, each with one regular season game remaining.
Five players from UC San Diego reached double figures in scoring. Freshman Hudson Mayes led the Tritons with 13 points and eight rebounds. Leo Beath, Bol Dengdit, and Emanuel Prospere II each added 12 points, while freshman Jaden Vance scored ten. The Tritons outscored Fullerton in the paint by a margin of 44-34 but were unable to hold their lead late in the game.
The first half was closely contested until UC San Diego used a 9-0 run to pull ahead. Strong shooting from beyond the arc helped them establish a double-digit advantage before halftime. At intermission, Dengdit had scored ten points and Mayes nine as the Tritons held a ten-point lead.
Fullerton began closing the gap midway through the second half. A key sequence came when Bryce Cofield scored five straight points during a 7-0 Titans run that cut UC San Diego’s lead to one point late in the game. Ward then tied it up with less than two minutes remaining before Beath answered for UC San Diego with a three-pointer.
With under a minute left and the score tied again, Prospere gave UC San Diego a brief two-point edge. However, Ward responded by making two free throws to put Fullerton ahead for good and then sealed the victory by stealing an inbound pass and converting it into another basket.
Triton head coach Clint Allard ’08 said: “Our offense didn’t help our defense late in the game. We started turning the ball over or taking bad shots, and [Fullerton] capitalized on advantage situations and made some big shots to beat us,” adding: “It’s the time of the season where we’ve got to learn and get better. We’ll make improvements and get ready for another tough opponent on Saturday.”
UC San Diego will conclude its regular season on Saturday evening against UC Santa Barbara at UCSB Events Center. Both teams enter their final matchup sharing identical conference records of 11-8.
Tom Beattie set a career high with nine assists during Thursday’s contest as noted among several statistical highlights for UC San Diego: they shot 50 percent from the field but attempted only three free throws—their lowest total of any game this season—and made all three attempts; meanwhile, Fullerton hit nine of its last ten field goal attempts while shooting nearly 60 percent after halftime.
Since moving up from NCAA Division II competition to join The Big West Conference in Division I, UC San Diego has continued building on its history of athletic success across multiple sports programs.
