LA JOLLA — The San Diego State Aztecs men’s basketball team won their seventh game of the season against UC San Diego at LionTree Arena on Friday, Dec. 1st.
The Aztecs and Tritons played against each other for the 14th time in their matchup’s history and it was the first time SDSU (7-1) saw LionTree Arena. It was also the first time the Aztecs played at a Big West opponent’s home arena since 2015 against Long Beach State.
Micah Parrish led the team in scoring for the game with 15 points. Lamont Butler and Darrion Trammell led the team with five assists each. Parrish and Jaedon LeDee led the team with 10 rebounds each. LeDee also had 13 points scored in the game, including the game-winning buzzer-beater.
Trammell was placed in the starting lineup against UCSD (4-4) instead of Reese Waters.
Coach Brian Dutcher said that Waters had been battling an illness over the past few days and was more comfortable putting Trammell in the starting five.
“Reese has missed three days with the flu, he was sick and he didn’t practice for three days and he was tired and he gave us everything he had,” Dutcher said. “Darrion stepped in Reese’s absence and played solid.”
UCSD scored first after a layup by guard Hayden Gray. SDSU got on the board soon after Trammell made both of his free throw attempts. Gray also made the Tritons first three of the game to give them a 5-2 lead, but Parrish also hit the team’s first three right after to tie the game.
Despite getting called for fouls early in the game, UCSD had control of the lead for the rest of the first half. The Tritons hit five 3-pointers on 16 attempts while SDSU only hit two three point shots on 10 attempts.
Butler struggled to begin the game and went 0-for-3 from the field before getting a dunk with 2:45 left in the first half to cut the Tritons lead to one. At the end of the first half, UCSD led 31-30. Dutcher stated the team had no concerns entering halftime.
“It was a one-point game at half and I thought we weathered the storm,” Dutcher said. “We’re tough-minded and we weathered the storm and we found a way to win and that’s the most important thing.”
At the start of the second half, Elijah Saunders hit a 3-pointer to give SDSU its first lead of the game at 33-31. UCSD quickly responded with a layup by guard Bryce Pope to tie the game. After two turnovers by the Aztecs, the Tritons began to pull away with a 39-33 lead.
With 7:13 left in the game, UCSD led 57-43 as the Aztecs were struggling with their shots. The Scarlet and Black cut the lead down to nine after a layup by Ledee and a clutch 3-pointer by Butler.
Following two layups by Butler and Parrish, the score was trimmed to 57-53 with 4:38 left in the game.
Butler hit another 3-pointer to cut the lead to one, but it was soon followed by another 3-pointer by Gray for the Tritons to extend their lead to 60-56. SDSU answered with a 3-pointer, then UCSD scored their last points of the game, as Pope hit a jumper to give UCSD a 3-point lead with 56 seconds remaining.
The Aztecs cut the lead to one once more after a layup by LeDee. With the score at 62-61 in favor of UCSD, SDSU was able to force a stop after a missed 3-pointer by Pope and a rebound by LeDee with around 8 seconds left.
On the last play of the game, the ball was inbounded to Trammell, who then passed it to Butler. LeDee rebounded the miss and made a last-second layup. SDSU won the game with the final score being 63-62.
The men’s basketball team will travel to face Grand Canyon University at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at GCU Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
