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DARRELL MIHO / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Rainbow Warrior Head Coach Eran Ganot drew up a play during overtime in Saturday’s game against Cal State Fullerton in Titan Gym. UH won 86-79.
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DARRELL MIHO / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Rainbow Warrior Head Coach Eran Ganot drew up a play during overtime in Saturday’s game against Cal State Fullerton in Titan Gym. UH won 86-79.
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One of the biggest criticisms of Hawaii basketball’s sublime start to the season was that the Rainbow Warriors’ growing pile of victories came exclusively at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Until last week, that was true.
UH took to the road with two key players dicey to participate in games at UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton. The Rainbows (15-2, 4-0 Big West) returned Sunday as big winners — two more victories on the ledger. Meanwhile, they avoided rushing Aaron Valdes back from his turf toe injury and avoided a potential disaster with Roderick Bobbitt’s playing status.
With Saturday’s 86-79 overtime win at Fullerton, Manoa matched its 2001-02 team for best record through 17 games and posted its first 4-0 start to conference play since that same season.
UH is tied with preseason favorite UC Irvine (15-5, 4-0) atop the league standings, two games clear of all other comers heading into two home games over the next two weeks. The Rainbows host UC Davis (6-10, 1-2) in their only game of the week Saturday.
The only UH team that started better through 17 games in the all-college era was the Fabulous Five team of 1971-72, which was 16-1 at this point.
The Rainbows could receive more votes in today’s Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls after receiving a smattering last week. The last time they were actually ranked in the top 25 was near the end of 2001-02.
Coach Eran Ganot brought Bobbitt off the bench in Thursday’s 80-71 win at Riverside. The all-conference point guard cleared some academic issues that caused him to miss the team flight to the mainland and met up with the team the morning of the game. He played 32 minutes, then got the start at Fullerton on Saturday and made some key plays in the 86-79 overtime win. Valdes made the trip but did not dress to play in either game and effectively has missed three straight contests.
Quincy Smith scored a career-high 17 against UCR and Isaac Fleming put in a career-best 23 at CSF. Forward Stefan Jankovic scored 21 points at Titan Gym, including the tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation, and went 6-for-6 at the line in overtime as part of UH’s 12-for-12 team effort there in the extra period.
