UC San Diego men fall to Cal State Northridge in Big West Tournament quarterfinal at Lee’s Family Forum
UC San Diego’s Big West title defense ends in Henderson
UC San Diego’s men’s basketball season moved into its decisive phase this week in Henderson, Nevada, where the Big West Conference staged its four-day postseason tournament at Lee’s Family Forum. The Tritons, seeded fifth after finishing 12–8 in conference play, advanced out of the opening round before being eliminated by fourth-seeded Cal State Northridge in the quarterfinals.
The Matadors defeated UC San Diego 80–70 in the Thursday, March 12 quarterfinal, ending the Tritons’ path to the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Big West tournament structure grants the top two seeds double byes into the semifinals and seeds three and four a single bye into the quarterfinals, leaving seeds five through eight to play an extra game to reach Thursday’s round.
How the result fits the bracket and the week’s schedule
UC San Diego entered the tournament needing four wins in four days to repeat as conference champion. The Tritons took the first step on Wednesday, March 11, defeating eighth-seeded Cal Poly 72–69 to secure a quarterfinal meeting with Northridge, which had a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed.
First round (Wednesday, March 11): UC San Diego 72, Cal Poly 69
Quarterfinal (Thursday, March 12): Cal State Northridge 80, UC San Diego 70
The quarterfinal loss not only ended UC San Diego’s tournament run, but also sent Northridge forward into a semifinal matchup against top-seeded UC Irvine on Friday, March 13. With the Big West’s NCAA berth awarded to the tournament champion, the elimination removed UC San Diego from the conference’s automatic-qualification path.
What the matchup revealed about the two teams’ season series
The quarterfinal outcome reinforced a season-long edge for Northridge in head-to-head results. The Matadors had already beaten UC San Diego twice during the regular season, including an 84–79 win in La Jolla on Jan. 15 and an 81–64 win on Jan. 31. Those results factored into Big West tiebreakers that separated teams with identical 12–8 league records and placed Northridge ahead of UC San Diego in the tournament seeding order.
In Big West tiebreakers among teams with identical conference records, head-to-head results and records against tied opponents can determine seeding.
What comes next
For UC San Diego, the season’s defining opportunity—winning the conference tournament to reach the NCAA field—ended in the quarterfinal round. The remaining Big West bracket continued Friday and Saturday in Henderson, culminating in the championship game on Saturday, March 14, with the winner receiving the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.