Hawaii basketball continues hot start with OT road win
The Hawaii basketball team staged a furious road comeback to keep its stellar start to the season going with an 86-79 overtime win at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Gym tonight.
UH (15-2, 4-0 Big West) trailed by four points with 15 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Rainbow Warriors didn’t quit and swept their two-game road trip.
The Rainbows made up a point playing the foul game and forward Stefan Jankovic hit a deep 3 to send the game into the extra frame. Guard Isaac Fleming scored a career-high 23 points, while Jankovic scored all of his 21 after halftime. Point guard Roderick Bobbitt added 14 points and six assists, helping UH overcome five Titans players in double-figure scoring.
UH matched its 2001-02 team for its best start to a season through 17 games since the Fabulous Five era in the early 1970s. The 2001-02 season was also the last time the Rainbows started conference play 4-0.
UH, again playing without leading scorer Aaron Valdes because of a turf toe injury, briefly built on a two-point halftime lead, but the Titans (8-8, 1-2) captured the lead five minutes into the second half. Then Fleming started bombing away from 3-point country. He hit three within a five-minute span to give UH a 52-47 advantage.
Sai Tummala’s 3-pointer made it 55-49 UH, but the Titans scored the next eight points for a 57-55 lead.
Freshman Sheriff Drammeh ended the run with a corner 3-pointer.
CSF’s Tre’ Coggins scored in transition to make it 61-58 Titans with 4:47 to play.
UH coach Eran Ganot called for time and Jankovic got a layup out of it.
Fleming tied it up at 65 with his fourth 3, a difficult shot from the corner with under three minutes to go.
CSF claimed a four-point lead with two minutes left, but Jankovic tipped in a miss to cut the deficit to 69-67.
UH forced a shot clock violation on CSF with 36 seconds to go, but coming out of a UH timeout Bobbitt turned it over out of bounds while driving to the basket.
UH took a foul on Lionheart Leslie, who made both shots to extend the lead back to four.
Bobbitt was off on a 3, but Coggins was called for a loose-ball foul, fouling out with 14 seconds left.
Tummala made both to cut it back to two.
Jankovic inadvertently fouled Kennedy Esume, a poor foul shooter who made one of two to make it 73-70 CSF.
Jankovic stepped into a deep 3-pointer to tie it up in the final seconds of regulation, then Quincy Smith got a steal, feeding Bobbitt for a runner to win — but the shot was too strong.
UH hit its first eight free throws — by Fleming and Jankovic — to open the extra period for an 80-76 lead.
Jankovic hit a face-up 16-footer for a five-point lead with 1:05 to play.
Smith fouled out and the Titans cut it to three, but Tummala got fouled back and made both for an 84-79 lead with 41 seconds left.
CSF committed a costly shot-clock violation and fouled Bobbitt, who made both for the final score.
Guard Khalil Ahmad led the Titans with 19 points.
9 responses to “Hawaii basketball continues hot start with OT road win”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Great finish. Team is looking good. Go Bows.
Watched the game streaming on ESPN3. Painful 39.75 minutes LOL. Great to see the team pull together, overcome the adversity and squeak it out on the road. Past teams would have folded. Thank you Coach Ganot! These same players under Gib “Benedict” Arnold would have folded…GREAT JOB!!!
What an exciting game that was. This team plays hard and never gives up till the end. Great win.
Hope the Wahine team can pull one out tonight over Riverside but its going to be tough. Riverside is good so Wahine can’t be making mistakes like in the past other wise its going to be a long night.
YEAH BABY !!!!!
Great win! Practice, practice, practice your free throws. I guess they did.
Aloha Mr McInnis! I was a “Bows” fan since the early ’80s. Football, basketball, volleyball, softball, and baseball. But when June Jones came back and changed the “Bows” to the WARRIORS, he was right. It is my understanding that the number of high schools on the mainland copying our graphics and our brand may be over 100, but I don’t know of another school or team anywhere calling themselves the “Bows”. I am also not aware of any of our current players calling themselves or their teams the “Bows”… They all refer to themselves and their teams as WARRIORS and WARRIOR WAHINE. I don’t believe that you were ever a “Bows” player, so what gives you the right to continue to hang an old, outdated moniker on them that most, if not all of them resent? Our WARRIORS won their 15th game tonight on the road under adverse circumstances. The ESPN announcers are suggesting that our WARRIORS are possibly the most dangerous team in the NCAA and that they deserve an invitation to the big dance if they continue to play as good as they have, regardless of their conference outcome. As a sports writer in Hawaii, I believe that it is your responsibility to adopt, own, and support our teams and the WARRIORS identity they have taken instead of demeaning them with an identity that they have discarded and is now history.
Lighten up entrkn. And you’re wrong. MBB is officially the Rainbow Warriors and NO Wahine team has EVER been Warriors, they are the Rainbow Wahine. Let’s GO BOWS, Let’s GO BOWS, Let’s GO BOWS!!!
Braddah needs to chill out..
I agree, the “Rainbows” or “Rainbow” moniker should have never reentered the naming of the UH Athletics teams. It sounds “gay”