In a season-long battle between the Anteaters and Tritons for who would come out on top in the Big West, it was UC San Diego who ended the Big West tournament with a 75-61 victory Saturday over UC Irvine to punch its first-ever ticket to the NCAA Men’s Tournament.
The first half was extremely hard-fought, and saw the Anteaters take a lead as big as nine after multiple made threes. The Tritons, just like Friday against Santa Barbara, fought through adversity to climb to within one possession before halftime 33-31.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones started the second half with multiple buckets to give UC San Diego the lead, and after that the threes really started raining down for the Tritons.
UC San Diego was led by a game-high 22 points from Hayden Gray, and he hit key three pointers to stretch the lead further for the Tritons. Gray shot 6-7 from downtown.
In its first-ever March Madness tournament appearance, the Tritons will wait to find out its official matchup on Selection Sunday – just as the women’s team will after winning their half of the Big West Tournament earlier Saturday.
As of late Saturday night, UC San Diego is projected to slot in as an 11 seed vs. six-seed UCLA, according to ESPN’s Bracketology by Joe Lunardi Matchups and seeds are subject to change.
The full bracket is set to be revealed at 3 p.m. PST Sunday.
