Jamel Ward's Career Night Leads Toros to 68-58 Win at UC San Diego

Box Score

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Winners of four of its last five, Cal State Dominguez Hills started its final road trip of the regular season in fine fashion after handling host UC San Diego in a 68-58 win, with senior Jamel Ward scoring a career-best 18 points in a balanced victory.

Ward and junior Michael Cox got the Toros out on the right foot, each scoring 12 points in a combined 10-of-15 shooting effort as CSUDH entered the break with a 42-23 lead after a dominating first-half display in which the number of Triton turnovers (nine) out-numbered their made baskets (eight).

The Toros led 22-20 with 7:31 left in the first half before CSUDH streaked to a 20-3 run to close the half, taking a 10-point lead three minutes later on an Amir Aguilar lay-up, before a Tim McGrath jumper with six ticks left gave the visitors their 19-point lead.

CSUDH ran its lead to as large as 25 at 48-23 on a Marcquintice Davis jumper with 16:27 left in regulation, before a Triton run cut the lead to just 10 at 4:52 on a pair of Jordan Lawley free throws. But the Toros kept UCSD at bay with clutch free throw shooting of their own, draining 8-of-10 foul shots in the final 1:41 to put the game away, surrounding an emphatic McGrath dunk with 49 seconds left that brought CSUDH's lead back to 11 at 66-55.

In addition to his 18 points, Ward grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in the win, with McGrath chipping in 16, Cox 12 and Davis 11 in the balanced win.

Lawley led all scorers with 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting, with Casey Ryan adding 19 after draining 9-of-10 shots from the floor. UCSD, however, misfired on 12 of 25 free throw attempts in the loss as the Tritons fell to 4-13, 3-11 CCAA.

The bench came up huge for CSUDH as its reserves out-scored UCSD's by 10, the final margin of victory.

The Toros, now at 10-10, 10-5 CCAA after starting the season 0-7, look for a CCAA Conference road sweep at Cal State East Bay on Saturday evening.

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