No. 1 RV UC San Diego (28-4, 18-2) clashed with No. 5 UC Santa Barbara (21-12, 11-9) in 2025’s Big West Championship semifinal round in Henderson, Nev. on March 14. The Tritons came out on top, winning 69-51.
San Diego — playing in their first-ever Big West tournament game — kicked off the night’s scoring courtesy of a second-chance three from senior guard Hayden Gray. After graduate guard Stephan Swenson got Santa Barbara on the board with a layup, the Tritons looked to their leading scorer and Big West Player of the Year in senior guard/forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones to get to the free-throw line, which he did. Tait-Jones led the nation in freethrows attempted during the regular season with 8.56 tries per game on his way to a 19.7 PPG average.
Freethrows summarized the first few minutes of offense for UCSD, with six early freethrow attempts in just 3 ½ minutes of game time. The Tritons — who shot 74.8% from the charity stripe on the season — only converted on two of those six attempts.
Postgame, Tait-Jones discussed his mentality when freethrows don’t happen early in games.
“I started rough, but my teammates in the huddle just told me ‘keep getting to the line, it’s what you do’ and Coach was telling me ‘just keep going, believe in it,’” Tait-Jones said at the postgame press conference. “I just gotta keep going and believe in it and trust the reps.”
Despite the early struggles from the line, UCSD settled down on defense and prevented any easy Santa Barbara looks. Of their initial seven shot attempts before the game’s first timeout, the Gauchos only saw one go down. Even after the timeout, the Gaucho offense continued to stagnate. UCSB immediately turned the ball over to San Diego and forced a deep Swenson three, which he airballed.
Contrary to the early action of the Big West Tournament, the offense on both sides was initially cold. After an and-one conversion by UCSB’s redshirt sophomore forward Colin Smith, the score sat at just 7-5 with 13 minutes to go in the half.
Santa Barbara senior guard Cole Anderson, who was a major spark plug against CSUN the day prior, finally got going with a catch-and-fire triple. San Diego junior forward Nordin Kapic responded to Anderson after a media timeout, spinning into the lane for an easy deuce to push the UCSD lead back to three. San Diego looked to separate, going to senior guard/forward Tyler McGhie for a catch-and-shoot three. McGhie hit, as he did 111 times during the regular season on 279 attempts — a near 40% average.
UCSB punched back, going on a 5-0 run after a made three by graduate forward Max Murrell and a layup from senior forward Kenny Pohto. A three from San Diego sophomore guard Aidan Burke put the Tritons back up by four, but a dogfight was officially underway.
After an early-half bonus pair of freethrows from McGhie, Smith hit a big three for Santa Barbara. Pohto continued the offensive momentum for the Gauchos with a huge slam, cutting San Diego’s lead back down to one.
UCSB sophomore guard Jason Fontenet II tied the game for the first time with a split trip to the free-throw line. Swenson then connected on a deep left-wing three, giving UCSB a lead for the first time on the night.
The Santa Barbara bench erupted after junior guard Ben Shtolzberg hit a pull-up two-pointer, giving the Gauchos a five-point lead and an 11-0 run, triggering a UCSD timeout. At this point, San Diego was on a five-minute scoring drought before Tait-Jones got back to the line and split a pair. After a block, Tait-Jones returned to the free-throw line and hit both tries, bringing the score to 24-22.
Both teams’ leading scorers traded buckets, with Swenson hitting another three and Tait-Jones getting an easy lay-in on the other side. Tait-Jones continued his takeover of the night, fighting for inside position and getting a putback layup to bring his point total to seven in the half. Tait-Jones appeared to yell in Swenson’s direction after the bucket, resulting in Swenson pleading for a technical foul to be called on the senior, but to no avail.
The half closed with three missed shots by Santa Barbara, but a 27-26 Gaucho lead nonetheless.
Tait-Jones opened the second half with some bully ball for UCSD, putting his shoulder down and getting an easy deuce in transition.
Despite a few early misses for Santa Barbara, Swenson kept firing and eventually connected on his third three of the night to give his team another lead in an increasingly back-and-forth game.
After another pair of Tait-Jones freethrows, Sholtzberg made a dazzling play — kissing the ball off the literal top portion of the backboard on a lefty layup — to give Santa Barbara the lead yet again.
The bank shots were contagious in Lee’s Family Forum, as McGhie got a generous bounce on a three — his second make on 11 attempts. Soon after the crowd ignited due to the bounce, the crowd exploded again when Sholtzberg shoved UCSD redshirt junior guard Justin Rochelin after a held-ball turnover by the Northridge native, resulting in a technical foul.
UCSD looked to seize the momentum caused by the tech. The crowd, packed with UCSD fans that made the trip from La Jolla, went berserk as junior guard Chris Howell threw down a monster one-handed dunk on a fastbreak.
It went from bad to worse for Santa Barbara as the UCSD run was extended to 18-2 with back-to-back triples from Burke and Kapic, respectively. With about 12 minutes to go in the game, the Tritons had UCSB against the rails, leading 46-32.
Pohto finally broke the Gauchos’ scoring break with an and-one layup, but missed the freethrow. As they had all half, UCSD put pressure on the rim and got a Gray layup to hit their sixth consecutive field goal attempt.
A flagrant foul called on Kapic led to two UCSB freethrow makes, but the lead was insurmountable against one of college basketball’s greatest stories in 2025. The Tritons cruised the rest of the way, finishing off Santa Barbara 69-51.
Postgame, UCSD head coach Eric Olen spoke about his team’s success in their first season as a Division I program.
“We’re excited. We feel good about the season we’ve had to this point and [we’re] excited about the opportunity tomorrow,” Olen said at the postgame press conference. “We expect to have success and we expect to play well, and these guys have done that pretty consistently start to finish this season.”
San Diego’s victory sets up a rubber match between the Tritons and No. 2 UC Irvine on March 15 for the Big West Championship and an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.