‘Bows get their sweet revenge

A “Blackout” crowd rocked “Straight Outta Manoa” T-shirts on Old School Rap Night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Hawaii obliged, running UC Irvine straight out of town.

The Rainbow Warriors scorched the Sheriff nets, tying a program record for 3-pointers made with 14 in a 74-52 rout of the Anteaters. A hyped battle for first place past the midpoint of the Big West schedule was a Rap wrap by the midpoint of the second half.

UH (19-3, 8-1 BWC) took the inside track on the regular-season championship with seven games remaining before the conference tournament. The Rainbow Warriors meet UCI (18-7, 7-2) in Irvine in nine days, but first host Cal State Fullerton for a shot at a 20th win on Saturday.

Thursday was a staggering, systematic dismantling of a championship-caliber team.

“That was our most complete performance of the year at the right time,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Stakes were high, you could feel it. … It’s a big statement and it’s a confidence builder. It’s been coming, though. (The players’) belief in each other, their trust in each other.”

Of the 8,578 fans in the building (9,826 tickets issued), more than 1,100 were students. They craved a smash hit; UH’s last home crowd, a sellout against Long Beach State on Jan. 30, went home disappointed with the team’s only loss in league play.

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt spit hot fire from his fingertips all night. He submitted a 23-point, seven-assist, six-rebound, no-turnover platinum performance.

It was no accident that it came against Irvine, the team that bested Hawaii in the Big West tournament championship game last March.

“I thought about that every day,” Bobbitt said. “And to get them here first in our home arena, with all these fans, the adrenaline starts rushing. We let them down when we lost against Long Beach State. We made sure we handled business tonight.”

Aaron Valdes’ impossibly high one-handed stuff on a lob from Bobbitt set the table in the opening minutes. The Rainbows feasted from there, splashing in shot after shot from the outside over Irvine’s vaunted 2-3 zone, which led the Big West in several defensive categories. Nine 3s came in the first half as the ‘Bows built a 17-point lead at the break.

Irvine withstood a similar barrage from UH in the tourney title game, then rallied in the second half to go ahead in the final minutes. This time, there was no sufficient adjustment that could be made. It snapped a four-game UCI streak in the series.

“Anybody who says ‘one of those nights’ doesn’t give enough credit to Hawaii,” Irvine coach Russell Turner said. “Hawaii played terrific basketball. Our game plan had more to do with taking away paint points than taking away 3-point shots and they made 14 3s.”

The 14 (on 30 attempts for 46.7 percent) tied the program high set twice in the 2001-02 season. UH came in shooting just north of 31 percent from deep, near the bottom of the Big West.

“I think that’s an unusual night for them, but I’ll give them credit for the shots that they made,” Turner said. “They made tough shots, they worked the ball to get rhythm shots, and they got going because they took some pretty good shots and made them. And then after they made some pretty good shots, the basket looked big for their shooters and they made some more.”

Valdes scored 16 with nine rebounds and Sai Tummala added 12 off the bench. Bobbitt, Valdes and Tummala combined to shoot 13-for-23 from long range.

UH assisted on 20 of its 25 field goals and battled one of the biggest teams in the country nearly evenly on the backboards.

Offensively, Irvine could not get going and was held to 31.3 percent shooting. Mamadou Ndiaye, the Anteaters’ 7-foot-6 center, failed to block a shot and was held to 10 points.

The Rainbows did it without a point from top scorer Stefan Jankovic until the game was basically decided, UH up 61-39 with 8:21 to play. They did it without top reserve Isaac Fleming, who did not dress to play and missed his third straight game with an ankle sprain.

Jankovic and Stefan Jovanovic held their ground against Ndiaye and 7-2 backup center Ioannis Dimakopoulus.

“Big ups to both Stefs,” Tummala said. “They’re the ones who did the grunt work.”

UH frustrated Ndiaye on his post-up attempts. Guard Niko Filipovich tied him up on one possession, while Sheriff Drammeh stripped him cleanly on another.

“Sheriff and Niko were huge off the bench,” Ganot said. “Their scrap, their belief. They’re gaining confidence. They’ve gotten more reps.”

UCI opened up making five of its first six shots, then was held to 3-for-20 shooting the rest of the half as UH tightened up its defense on guard Luke Nelson (team-high 11 points).

The Rainbows tied it at 11 when Valdes took off from the right baseline, caught Bobbitt’s airborne pass with one hand — he seemingly had time to pause in midair for effect — and threw it home before the ‘Eaters could react. It got the building rocking and kicked off a 16-2 run.

“I know he can jump out of the gym,” Bobbitt said. “If I can get it over the guy that’s in front of him, to the point where Aaron can just go get it, I know he’ll finish it. That oop was crazy. Nuts.”

Drammeh nearly scraped the catwalk above the court with a 35-foot prayer to beat the shot clock late in the half — and found all net.

Bobbitt sank his fourth 3 in the corner right in front of the UCI bench, sliding his fingers into imaginary holsters.

UCI got to within 13 points at the start of the second half, but UH answered Ndiaye’s only dunk with 3-pointers by Valdes and Bobbitt to open it back up.

BIG WEST MEN

Thursday

Hawaii 74, UC Irvine 52

Long Beach State 73, Cal Poly 70

UC Santa Barbara 72, UC Davis 66

Saturday

Long Beach State at UC Davis

CSUN at UC Irvine

Cal Poly at UC Riverside

Cal State Fullerton at Hawaii, 7 p.m., at Stan Sheriff Center

HAWAII 74, UC IRVINE 52

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 38, UC Irvine 21

3-point goals — UC Irvine 4-16 (Saprykinas 2-3, Young 1-4, Nelson 1-4, Rivers 0-1, Wright 0-1, Martin 0-3). Hawaii 14-30 (Bobbitt 6-10, Tummala 4-7, Valdes 3-6, Drammeh 1-1, Smith 0-1, Enos 0-2, Filipovich 0-3). Steals — UC Irvine 5 (Young, Martin, Dimakopoulos, Rivers, Wright). Hawaii 9 (Drammeh 3, Smith 2, Bobbitt, Filipovich, Tummala, Jovanovic). Blocked shots — UC Irvine 2 (Young, Dimakopoulos). Hawaii 3 (Jovanovic 2, Thomas). Turnovers — UC Irvine 14 (Ndiaye 4, Nelson 2, Wright 2, Young, Dunning, Martin, Saprykinas, Dimakopoulos, TEAM). Hawaii 10 (Smith 2, Thomas 2, Jovanovic 2, Valdes, Jankovic, Filipovich, TEAM). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Thomas Nunez, Ken Ditty, Donn Berdahl. A — 9,826.