LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego men's basketball team began the game with an 8-0 run and never looked back in a convincing 69-51 victory over visiting William Jewell College on Sunday afternoon in RIMAC Arena. The victory pushes the Tritons' record to 4-2 on the season while dropping the Cardinals, a NAIA team from Liberty, Mo., to 6-6 in 2007-08.

First year head coach Chris Carlson's squad shot lights out in the first half, making 13 of 23 shots from the floor and five of 10 from long range. That hot shooting along with a stifling defense that forced 12 first half turnovers from William Jewell led to the 36-23 halftime advantage for the Tritons.

UCSD continued to shoot the ball well in the second stanza, going 12-for-22 overall and adding another 5-for-10 performance from long range while limiting the Cardinals to 30.8% overall in the second half and a 4-for-11 clip from behind the 3-point arc. All-in-all, the Tritons shot 55.6% from the floor for the game and 50.0% from the 3-point line. The only place where Carlson's squad struggled was at the charity stripe, as the team made only 10 of 20 free throws in the victory.

Junior forward Henry Patterson led a balanced scoring attack for the Tritons with his 13 points while Kelvin Kim and Clint Allard added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Shane Poppen grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds while Allard added six boards and a game-high eight assists.

Jordan Jamestown led WJC with 14 points, six of which came from the free throw line down the stretch. Larry Mandacina added 11 points to go along with four rebounds.

The Tritons are now two games above .500 for only the second time in program history at the NCAA Division II level. The first time came near the end of the 2005-06 season when UCSD owned a 15-13 record before losing its final game that season to finish at 15-14.

Coach Carlson's squad will return to action on Tuesday evening, December 18th, hosting Wayne State College (Nebraska) at 7 p.m. in RIMAC Arena.