Women’s Basketball Wins Second Straight Big West Title!

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HENDERSON, Nev. – UC San Diego overcame a sluggish start and used a strong second half to down Hawai’i, 60-48, in The Big West championship Saturday afternoon at Lee’s Family Forum. Erin Condron scored 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds (16 and nine in the second half) to propel the Tritons (24-8) to their second consecutive Big West title. Tournament MVP Makayla Rose finished with 17 and eight. Both Condron and Rose played all 40 minutes for UC San Diego.
 
The win was the Tritons’ sixth straight. UC San Diego will compete in the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Neither team got off to a strong shooting start, with the Tritons hitting just two of its first eight shots and Hawai’i missing its first four. The Rainbow Wahine turned it over three times and came up empty on six consecutive possessions as UC San Diego led, 4-0. Hawai’i scored six straight as the Tritons missed ten consecutive shot attempts. Lev Feiman broke the scoring drought with a pull-up jumper to tie the game at 6-6. The Rainbow Wahine scored seven straight and led 13-9 after the first quarter. UC San Diego hit just 4-of-19 shots (21%). The Tritons scored seven of their nine points on fast break, but UH, boasting the league’s top defense, controlled the pace.
 
Hawai’i scored nine straight and a three-pointer from Ritorya Tamilo forced a time out for the Tritons, who trailed by ten, 26-16, with 2:55 left in the half. The Rainbow Wahine led 28-20 at halftime. UC San Diego hung around by grabbing more rebounds than Hawai’i in the quarter, by the Tritons still shot only 25% over the second ten minutes. Makayla Rose scored seven with four rebounds and Erin Condron scored six with five boards for the Tritons.
 
The Rainbow Wahine took their largest lead, 32-21, early in the second. UC San Diego answered with seven straight, capped by a three from Rosa Smith, cutting the deficit to four with 5:16 left in the third quarter. The Tritons’ defense forced six UH turnovers in the third, and a putback from Dymonique Maxie tied the game at 34-34 with 2:24 to play in the third. That Maxie bucket set off a 6-0 spurt that gave UC San Diego a three-point lead, 40-37, after three. UC San Diego outrebounded UH – the top rebounding team in the conference – 14-6 in the third.
 
UC San Diego found its offensive rhythm early in the fourth quarter, hitting six-of-nine shots, and building a 52-43 lead with 5:07 left. Condron scored six points in the first half of the fourth while grabbing five rebounds. Playing its third game in as many days – the first two having gone to overtime – Hawai’i appeared to run out of gas. The Tritons used a 6-0 run after the break to go up by 13 and pull away.
 
Thanks to a tenacious defense, UC San Diego won despite shooting only 36% for the game.
 
TRITON TIDBITS UC San Diego has not lost a Big West tournament game (now 5-0) since the conference allowed the Tritons begin competing in the event in 2025 following the Tritons’ transition to Division I. Saturday was the seventh time this season the Tritons held an opponent under 50 points. UC San Diego wore its white uniforms as the higher-seeded team. The Tritons improved to 5-0 all-time at Lee’s Family Forum.  
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UP NEXT
UC San Diego will find out its NCAA First Round opponent at Sunday’s selection show which airs on ESPN at 5 p.m. PT. The team will host a watch party — free to all fans — inside LionTree Arena. The Tritons will compete in March Madness for the second straight season – their only two with postseason eligibility following the transition to Division I.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world’s preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.