UH basketball beats Cal State Fullerton for fourth straight win

Two days after moving into the Big West lead, the University of Hawaii basketball team avoided a letdown and maintained its hold on first place with a 76-59 win over Cal State Fullerton tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Warriors, who ascended to the top the conference standings with a win over UC Irvine on Thursday, won their fourth straight and improved to 20-3 overall and 9-1 in the Big West before a crowd of 7,027 (8,401 tickets issued) at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH reached the 20-win mark for the third straight season, the program’s longest such streak against all-collegiate competition.

UH center Stefan Jankovic led the Rainbow Warriors with 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Guard Quincy Smith added 15 points and Aaron Valdes posted his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt finished with 12 points, four assists and four steals. Forward Sai Tummala hit two of UH’s eight 3-pointers and contributed 11 points and a season-high 10 rebounds off the bench.

Cal State Fullerton guard Tre’ Coggins led the Titans (9-15, 2-9) with 18 points.

UH opened the game on a 20-3 run, hitting three 3-pointers in the first 7 minutes while Cal State Fullerton started 1-for-13 from the field.

UH guard Quincy Smith hit his first four shots, two from 3-point range, and had 10 points a little more than 11 minutes into the game.

Cal State Fullerton rallied to close the gap to 29-27 before UH broke away again and the Rainbows took a 40-31 lead into halftime.

UH extended to 54-41 on back-to-back 3s by Tummala and Bobbitt and maintained a double-digit cushion the rest of the way.

UH goes on the road to take on CSUN on Thursday and UC Irvine on Saturday. UC Irvine also won 93-84 at CSUN on Saturday to remain a game behind UH.