After Giving False Hope, Cal Lutheran Runs Away, 95-81 : College basketball: Kingsmen snap second-half tie at UC San Diego with 10-point burst, advance to sectional semifinals.

For the first 24 minutes of Saturday night’s NCAA Division III men’s basketball game between Cal Lutheran and UC San Diego, the host Tritons played the Kingsmen to a standoff.

But 68 seconds later, San Diego trailed by 10 points as Cal Lutheran rolled to a 95-81 victory in the second-round game before 1,365 at Triton Gymnasium.

The victory was the fifth in a row for the Kingsmen (25-2), who will play Greensboro (N.C.), a 90-77 winner over Christopher Newport (Va.), in a sectional semifinal Friday at a site to be determined.

“I was kind of surprised that they tried to run with us like they did, but I’m glad they did,” Cal Lutheran guard Damon Ridley said. “We had watched them on film and we thought we could beat them up and down the court if they played that way for 40 minutes. We felt that we had better athletes than they did.”

Ability notwithstanding, San Diego (21-5) tied the score, 48-48, with 16 minutes 30 seconds left in the game when Kahlil Allen threw down a two-handed dunk.

The Triton faithful were dancing in the aisles when Allen scored, but they were quickly silenced as Cal Lutheran scored 10 consecutive points to take a 58-48 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

Rupert Sapwell began the run with a three-point play and Paul Tapp followed with a three-point shot that gave the Kingsmen a 54-48 lead.

Matt Minehan was called for traveling on the Tritons’ ensuing possession and he compounded matters by being whistled for a technical foul for arguing the call.

Tapp, who hit eight of eight free throws, converted both foul shots and Jason Smith tipped in a missed shot by Ridley to give Cal Lutheran a 58-48 lead.

UC San Diego couldn’t get closer than five points after that as the Kingsmen converted 15 of 18 free throws over the final 3 1/2 minutes to advance to the round of 16 for the second time in three years.

“It feels extra good because we had to come down here to play even though we were the No. 1-ranked team in the nation,” Ridley said. “But I guess it really didn’t matter where we played this game, because we’re going to have to win on the road anyway if we want to get to the final four.”

Tapp scored a game-high 23 points for Cal Lutheran and Sapwell and Ridley each added 20. Sapwell had 19 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Tapp extended his consecutive free-throw shooting streak to 35 with an eight-for-eight performance.

Allen, Matt Aune and Erik Johnson each scored 15 points for the Tritons, who had won eight in a row and 15 of their previous 16.

Cal Lutheran led, 46-42, at halftime after going on a 7-2 run to end the first 20 minutes of play.

Rodney Lusain hit a pair of free throws with 1:13 left to give the Tritons a 40-39 lead, but Tapp countered with a three-point shot for the Kingsmen and followed that with a layup after intercepting UC San Diego’s inbounds pass.

Minehan hit a short jump shot to narrow the Tritons’ deficit to 44-42, but a Clark putback of a Sapwell miss gave Cal Lutheran a 46-42 lead.

The Kingsmen had a great opportunity to go into the locker room with a six-point lead, but Sapwell missed a pair of free throws with three seconds remaining. Clark had 16 points for Cal Lutheran, followed by Sapwell with nine and Ridley with eight.

The Kingsmen hit 18 of 34 shots and converted eight offensive rebounds into 13 points on second or third chances.

Lusain led Sa Diego with 11 points and Johnson added 10.