Reaching 20 wins for the first time in a decade was great and all for Hawaii, as was a final taste of victory at the Stan Sheriff Center for the Rainbow Warriors’ three seniors.
What Saturday night’s 81-77 win over Cal State Fullerton really might have done is give UH a fighting chance in this week’s Big West tournament.
In the tournament’s one-and-done format, only one of eight teams will win three times in three days at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and advance to the NCAA Tournament. Fourth-seeded UH (20-10, 9-7 league) opens with No. 5 Cal State Northridge at 5:30 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday.
"There’s no such thing really as a must-win until now," UH coach Gib Arnold said following Saturday’s senior ceremonies for Christian Standhardinger, Brandon Spearman and Davis Rozitis. "But I did definitely feel that to get the momentum going in, this was a huge game. You know, we lost two games on the road against really good teams (Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara). And we needed this one, just to get that little swag back and, obviously, for the seniors. More so than anything for them."
Had the ‘Bows not held off the Titans in the final few minutes, they would have entered the league tournament with three straight losses, something that none of UH’s past teams to make the NCAAs ever had to surmount.
Point guard Keith Shamburger helped avert that by going 12-for-14 at the free-throw line in the final 2 minutes, 28 seconds. He was 14-for-16 at the line in total and had five assists and no turnovers.
"Coach wants me in those situations. I just went up there, took my time and knocked ’em down," said Shamburger, an 84.1 percent foul shooter. "I haven’t lost the touch at the free throws yet, so I’m just trying to get there as much as I can.
"I wanted the (seniors) to go out with a win tonight. We didn’t want to let the fans down either."
Said Arnold: "That’s what point guards are supposed to do, put it in their hands at the end of games. They win games for you. Keith won that game for us."
Standhardinger made his last game at the Stan Sheriff Center — in view of some of his family from Germany and the Philippines — count with 17 points, 15 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. After going 4-for-6 at the line, he needs four more free-throw makes to pass Chris Gaines for the UH single-season record at 185.
"It’s great, and after this night we just gotta keep playing again and forget about this game because we gotta bring it again in the tournament, and we gotta win," Standhardinger said between signing autographs for frenzied fans.
UH was one-and-done at Anaheim last season, falling 71-60 to UC Irvine en route to a CollegeInsider.com tournament appearance.
Note
The Big West all-conference teams — both men’s and women’s — will be announced Monday morning. Check StarAdvertiser.com’s breaking news for updates.
