UH basketball team reaches 20 wins in regular-season finale

The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors left no doubt in their regular-season finale.

UH achieved a 20-win season for the second straight year in routing Cal State Fullerton 91-70 at Titan Gym in Fullerton, Calif., on Saturday.

The Rainbows (20-12, 8-8 Big West) earned the No. 5 seed in next week’s Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif., and will face No. 4 Long Beach State in Thursday’s first round at the Honda Center.

Five UH players scored in double figures as senior night was spoiled for Fullerton, the last-place team in the league (9-22, 1-15). The lead grew as large as 25 points in the final few minutes.

Senior Garrett Nevels led the way with 16 points, center Stefan Jovanovic scored a career-high 15 points, forward Aaron Valdes had 12 points and nine rebounds, Isaac Fleming came off the bench and contributed 11 points and six assists, and forward Stefan Jankovic scored all of his 10 points before halftime.

UH, which shot 56.1 percent and forced 18 turnovers, scored the first nine points of the game and led 14-1, then settled for an eight-point halftime lead.

CSF cut it to three at the outset of the second half, but Nevels scored six straight points to spur an 11-0 run for a 50-36 lead.

Fleming scored on a floater and Jovanovic put in a free throw for UH’s largest lead to that point, 16 at the midpoint of the period.

Valdes made a foul shot and Mike Thomas put back Valdes’ missed second free throw for a basket to push it to 70-52. 

The lead grew to 21 on a pair of free throws by Niko Filipovich and UH’s second unit held serve from there. 

UH shot 57.1 percent in the first half and turned back the Titans once they cut the deficit to three. The Rainbows led 39-31 at the break behind 10 points from Jankovic.

UH improved to 6-0 against Fullerton in Big West games and has won the last seven in the series overall.