No. 3 UC San Diego 72, No. 2 San Francisco State 65
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif – Junior forward Henry Patterson scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead No. 3 seed UC San Diego to a 72-65 victory over No. 2 seed San Francisco State in the opening semifinal game of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament Friday evening at Coussoulis Arena on the campus of Cal State San Bernardino.
UC San Diego (17-11) advances to the CCAA Championship Game where it will play the winner of the Cal State Dominguez Hills-Cal Poly Pomona semifinal game that begins at 8 p.m. The title game is scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The Tritons jumped out to an early lead as they built a 20-point advantage with 7:17 remaining in the first half and never trailed in the contest. UC San Diego led 29-24 at halftime.
The closest San Francisco State would get in the game came in the second half when it cut the margin to five points on a jumper by Chris Rodriguez that made the score 56-51 with 7:35 remaining.
Junior guard Alex Thomas led the Gators with 21 points. San Francisco State also received double-digit scoring from Rodriguez (13 points), Will Logan (12) and freshman Robert Hayes who finished with 10 points.
UC San Diego had the hot hand from the field as it shot 60 percent, connecting on 27 of 45 shots from the floor. The Tritons out-scored San Francisco State 32-20 in the paint, keyed by Patterson, who was eight for 10 from the field.