Tait-Jones’ 20 lead UC San Diego past UC Santa Barbara in Big West Tournament semifinals, 69-51

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had 20 points in top-seeded UC San Diego’s 69-51 win over fifth-seeded UC Santa Barbara on Friday in the Big West Conference Tournament semifinals.

The Tritons will face the winner of the semifinal between No. 2 UC Irvine and seventh-seeded Cal Poly in Saturday’s championship game.

Tait-Jones also contributed eight rebounds, nine assists, and three blocks for the Tritons (29-4). Tyler McGhie scored 13 points while going 2 of 13 from the floor, including 2 for 10 from 3-point range, and 7 for 9 from the line and added five rebounds. Nordin Kapic shot 5 for 10, including 2 for 6 from beyond the arc to finish with 13 points. The Tritons picked up their 13th straight win.

Stephan D. Swenson led the Gauchos (21-13) in scoring, finishing with 12 points and six assists. UCSB also got 12 points from Ben Shtolzberg. Kenny Pohto had 10 points.

Tait-Jones scored seven points in the first half and UCSD went into halftime trailing 27-26. UCSD pulled off the victory after an 18-2 second-half run erased a two-point deficit and gave them the lead at 46-32 with 12:39 left in the half. Tait-Jones scored 13 second-half points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

By The Associated Press