UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, left, collides with UC Irvine’s Justin Hohn during the Big West Tournament title game on Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Henderson, Nevada. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones collides with UC Irvine’s Justin Hohn during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray makes a three pointer against UC Irvine’s Myles Che during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Chris Howell, bottom, battles for a loose ball with UC Irvine’s Ofure Ujadughele during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Justin Rochelin dunks past UC Irvine’s Bent Leuchten during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Nordin Kapic is defended by UC Irvine’s Bent Leuchten during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray scores against UC Irvine’s Kyle Evans during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones can’t make a basket as UC Irvine’s Bent Leuchten defends during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Chris Howell, bottom, battles for a loose ball with UC Irvine’s Ofure Ujadughele during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones can’t make a basket as UC Irvine’s Bent Leuchten defends during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Justin Rochelin (5), celebrates with Chris Howell against UC Irvine during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scores against UC Irvine during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC Irvine center Bent Leuchten, center, shields the ball from UC San Diego’s Aidan Burke, left, and Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones during the first half of the Big West Tournament championship game on Saturday night in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray drives around UC Irvine’s Devin Tillis during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Tyler McGhie shoots a three pointer against UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scores against UC Irvine’s Bent Leuchten during the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray celebrates after making a three pointer against UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray celebrates after the Tritons beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego fans celebrate a win against UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego coach Eric Olen celebrates with Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones after the Tritons beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego coach Eric Olen celebrates with Justin Rochelin, left, Tyler McGhie and Hayden Gray after the Tritons beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, left, celebrates with Chris Howell after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego fans celebrate a win against UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament finals on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones is overcome with emotion after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, center, was is congratulated by teammates after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego coach Eric Olen holds up the championship trophy after the Tritons beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones celebrates after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Tyler McGhie celebrates after they beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones celebrates while cutting down the net after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones takes it in after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones celebrates while cutting down the net after beating UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) UC San Diego’s Hayden Gray celebrates after the Tritons beat UC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) The UC San Diego men’s basketball team celebrates after beatingUC Irvine to win the Big West Tournament on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Show Caption1 of 33UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, left, collides with UC Irvine’s Justin Hohn during the Big West Tournament title game on Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Henderson, Nevada. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Expand The new kid on the block played like a savvy veteran down the stretch of the Big West Tournament championship game on Saturday night. UC San Diego, eligible for the eight-team conference tournament for the first time since moving up from Division II four years ago, outlasted UC Irvine, 75-61, at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada. “Both teams were ready to play tonight, it was a competitive game and they were able to pull away from us in the second half,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “Credit to them for that.” With their 15th consecutive victory, the top-seeded Tritons (30-4) earned an automatic bid into the 68-team NCAA Tournament, while the second-seeded Anteaters (28-6) can hold on to the slim hopes that their season-long resume is impressive enough to earn an at-large berth. The field will be revealed during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday at 3 p.m. PT (CBS, Ch. 2). The UCSD women’s team also won a Big West Tournament title in its first year of eligibility earlier Saturday. UCI, seeking its first tournament championship since 2019, was overwhelmed in the second half by UCSD, which outscored the Anteaters 44-28 in the final 20 minutes. Hayden Gray, who played two seasons at Azusa Pacific before transferring to UCSD and earning Big West Defensive Player of Year honors this season, shot 6 for 7 from 3-point range and scored a season-high 22 points, doubling his season average (10.9 ppg). Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, the Big West Player of the Year in the regular season, finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Justin Hohn scored 18 points to lead UCI. Devin Tillis contributed 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and Bent Leuchten finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Leuchten, a 7-foot-1 center, had scored 23 points in each of the first two meetings against UCSD this season. “I thought they wore him out,” Turner said. “It was a physical game and it did look like we tired.” UCI has been the most consistently successful regular-season program in the Big West for more than a decade but has just two trips to the NCAA Tournament to show for it (2015, 2019). The Anteaters have won the Big West regular-season title seven of the past 11 years and have 10 20-win seasons in 15 years under Turner, but the conference tournament has been their trouble spot. UCI, the runner-up to UCSD in the regular season, has won just once in its past five appearances in the Big West championship game and was upset in the semifinals as the tournament’s top seed in 2023 and 2024. In a matchup of the top two defensive teams in the Big West, the Tritons used a 10-0 run early in the second half to move ahead for good, 43-36. Tillis tried to rally UCI and his drive to the basket cut the deficit to 52-49 with 9:24 left, but he and Hohn each missed 3-point tries that would have tied the score. Leuchten then checked back into the game and Chris Howell stole the ball from him. After Myles Che came up short on a turnaround jumper in the key, Gray sank his fifth 3-pointer of the game to extend the lead to 55-49 with 6:56 to go. Tillis answered with a 3-pointer, but Gray was left open for another 3-point attempt and he swished it for a 58-52 advantage with 5:18 left. Che made two free throws to cut the deficit to four, but Nordin Kapic sank a corner 3-pointer out of a timeout, and Tyler McGhie beat the shot clock with another basket from behind the arc and the lead ballooned to 64-54 with 2:53 left. “It looked to me like we ran out of gas a little bit,” said Turner, whose team shot 35% from the field for the night, compared to 49% for UCSD. “We didn’t have the same pop in the second half offensively as we did in the first half. Some of the credit for that has to go to San Diego.” UCSD got off to a good start by taking an early 8-2 lead. Hohn scored eight points in a two-minute span to move the Anteaters ahead 15-12, and UCI took its biggest lead of the game at 25-16 on a 3-pointer by Che with 7:39 left in the first half. Gray then took over and scored eight points in a little more than two minutes to trim the lead to three and UCI eventually took a 33-31 lead into the locker room at halftime. “Difficult night for us to come up short, that’s obvious, but I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” Turner said. Given that the Big West hasn’t sent a second team to the NCAA Tournament since 2005, UCI is almost certainly headed to the 32-team NIT for the third straight season. That bracket will also be revealed Sunday. “I don’t think there’s any chance that we’re going to be rewarded with an at-large bid (in the NCAA Tournament), and I think that’s a difficult reality that we face because we can’t get the type of games that they say they’re going to reward,” Turner said. “The system is not set up as it is now for mid-majors like us to be able to get an at-large bid without exceptional circumstances. “We led the nation in road wins, we had 14 road wins. We had three wins on a neutral floor somewhere up in Canada against really good teams. We played a schedule that was as difficult as we could find. We could not get any more better games. We have to wait until it’s 2 a.m. at the bar to get anybody to agree to play with us.” Related Articles College Sports | Big West Tournament: UC Irvine, UC Riverside and CSUN come in confident College Sports | Big West Women’s Tournament: UC Irvine looks for 2nd straight title College Sports | Brackets set for Big West men’s and women’s basketball tournaments College Sports | Swanson: Epilepsy can’t keep UC Irvine’s Will Bermudez off the diamond College Sports | UC Irvine dominates 2nd half to take showdown with UC Riverside ...read more read less