The third time was not the charm for UC San Diego against Cal State Northridge.

After defeating the Tritons twice during the regular season, the Matadors pulled away down the stretch Thursday night to eliminate defending champion UCSD 80-70 in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nev.

Guards Larry Hughes II, Josiah Davis and Joshua O’Garro combined for 37 points in the second half as fourth-seeded CSUN outscored the Tritons 48-34 after trailing by four (36-32) at intermission.

Hughes led all scorers with a career-high 34 points.

For the second straight night, guard Tom Beattie scored a career-high for UCSD with 22 points. But after scoring 16 points in the first half, Beattie went 2-for-6 from the floor in the second half. As a team, the Tritons shot just 37.7% (10-for-28) after intermission and went 4-for-18 from 3-point range.

The fifth-seeded Tritons finished the season 23-11. CSUN is now 20-13 going into Friday’s Big West semifinals against regular-season champion UC Irvine (22-10).

In addition to 22 points, Beattie also led UCSD with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Freshman Hudson Mayes finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. And Leo Beath scored 11 points with six rebounds.

UCSD outscored the Matadors 15-10 over the last nine minutes of the first half after CSUN led 22-21. The Matadors wouldn’t lead again until 51-49 with 10 ½ minutes to play. They took the lead for good on a Hughes’ three-pointer with just under six minutes to play. UCSD pulled back to within five at 75-70 on a pair of Mayes free throws with 1:28 to play.

MiraCosta to semis

Melia Hinojos hit six three-point shots and point guard Anayla Anderson scored 17 points and had 11 assists Thursday afternoon as MiraCosta College’s women’s team defeated Folsom Lake College 82-59 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals of the California Community College Athletic Association tournament.

MiraCosta (30-1), the No. 3 seed from Southern California, will play the winner of Thursday night’s Mt. San Antonio College-Fresno College game Saturday at 3 p.m. at College of the Sequoias in Visalia.

MiraCosta led 47-20 at halftime. Faith Behrendt (Classical Academy; 14) and Kiya Waters (10) also scored in double figures for MiraCosta while Kyla Palpallatoc (Morse High School) and Charlotte Dagnino each added nine points. Behrendt added five rebounds and five assists.

San Diego City College (25-5), the No. 5 seed from Southern California, will play No. 1 north seed San Francisco City College (29-1) Friday at 5 p.m. in the men’s quarterfinals.