La JOLLA, Calif. – It was a rematch in name only.

Last season Azusa Pacific and UC San Diego met in the semifinal round of the NCAA Division II West Regional semifinal where the Tritons claimed the win. In their first meeting since that game in mid-March, Azusa Pacific fell to UC San Diego 81-60 on Saturday afternoon at the UC San Diego Thanksgiving Classic.

Between the two teams there were only two players who started both games and both of those players played for the Tritons.

The Cougars struggled on the boards as UC San Diego (4-2) held a 54-31 edge in rebounding. UC San Diego connected on 43.3 percent (29-for-67) of their field goal attempts. In the first and fourth quarters they hit on 50 percent of their jump shots.

"Right now we are struggling on defense and with our rebounding. We are still looking for the right answers and until we do that we will struggle to get the results we want," head coach T.J. Hardeman said. "I was proud of the way we battled in the second half but we'd like to put more than one half together."

The Tritons never trailed in Saturday's contest. The home team rushed out to a 17-4 lead as they kept that 13-point (28-15) lead after the game's opening quarter came to a close. As the contest continued to unfold the Cougars battled but couldn't string positive offensive possessions together to get their deficit under double digits.

For the second straight game Azusa Pacific (2-5) set their season low for turnovers committed. They gave the ball up just seven time but struggled from the floor. The Cougars took a season best 67 field goal attempts but converted on 24 of those shots (35.8 percent) to hamper their comeback efforts.

Azusa Pacific steps into PacWest play on Thursday when they travel to Concordia for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off against the Eagles.