Hawaii basketball beats Cal State Northridge
DARRELL MIHO/SPECIAL TO THE HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER
Rainbow Warrior Quincy Smith seals the game with a slam dunk over Cal State Northridge Matador Zacarry Douglas during a game Thursday night at the Matadome.
Quincy Smith had the last word in a special matchup.
Smith slammed home a putback dunk with 12 seconds left and Hawaii prevailed over Cal State Northridge, 69-63, after giving up a late lead at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif., today.
Forward Stefan Jankovic scored a career-high 34 points on 12-for-13 shooting from the field and point guard Roderick Bobbitt iced the win with two free throws with 6 seconds left. First-place UH (21-3, 10-1 Big West) extended its program-best start on the conference road to 5-0 heading into Saturday’s showdown at second-place UC Irvine.
Forward Sai Tummala had the go-ahead points on a corner 3-pointer on an assist by Sheriff Drammeh with under a minute left.
CSUN (9-17, 4-8) was led by Kendall Smith, the younger brother of UH’s Smith who scored 13 points. The brothers had never before faced off in an official game.
Besides Jankovic’s output, no Rainbow scored more than Bobbitt’s nine points. The point guard dished seven assists, while Quincy Smith had eight points and six rebounds and forward Mike Thomas grabbed 11 boards.
The Rainbows committed 20 turnovers — Jankovic was assessed eight — but won the rebounding battle emphatically, 40-29.
UH missed a key rotation player for the 10th straight game — wing Aaron Valdes was a pregame scratch with flu-like symptoms.
CSUN, meanwhile, was without 6-11 starting center Olalekan Ajayi, the second-leading rebounder in the conference who was out with a concussion.
Despite committing 11 first-half turnovers, UH led by as many as eight points in the period. The Rainbows yielded the final basket of the half and settled for a 32-26 lead at the break.
A three-point play by Jankovic gave the Rainbows a 37-30 lead early in the second half.
CSUN crept within three points, then Jankovic converted another three-point play and Tummala followed with a 3-pointer for UH’s largest lead to that point 43-34 with under 13 minutes to play.
The Matadors responded with a 16-2 run fueled by UH turnovers to take a five-point lead.
After Thomas was issued a questionable goaltending call, Jankovic went inside for his third three-point play of the night to get UH within 50-48 with 7:48 to go.
A basket by Jankovic tied it up at 51 with 6:39 to play. His 3-pointer with 5:44 remaining reclaimed the lead for the Rainbows, 54-51, and gave the junior a new career-high 30 points.
CSUN forward Tre-Hale Edmerson fouled out on Quincy Smith’s drive to the basket with 4:10 to play, then picked up a technical foul. UH converted all four free throws — two by Bobbitt and two by Smith — for a 58-53 lead.
After Bobbitt missed an open layup, Matadors guard Aaron Parks made two free throws then earned an and-1 basket with 3:13 to go, but couldn’t hit the free throw to keep UH in the lead, 58-57.
Jankovic converted a second-chance basket to keep the Rainbows ahead temporarily. But Micheal Warren scored a hoop, Quincy Smith had a 3-point attempt go in and out, and Bobbitt picked up a foul on the rebound.
Parks made one of two at the line to tie it up at 60 with 1:44 remaining.
Jankovic was fouled off the ball and made two at the line to put UH back up.
Coming out of a timeout, Parks was fouled and missed the second of two. Jankovic fouled Jerron Wilbur on the rebound. Wilbut made both for a 63-62 CSUN lead with 1:06 to go. CSUN would not score again.
Tummala came up clutch with another corner 3-pointer, UH got a stop and Quincy Smith slammed home a tip dunk on a missed layup by Drammeh.
The teams rematch in Honolulu on UH’s senior night Feb. 27.
7 responses to “Hawaii basketball beats Cal State Northridge”
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Exciting game unlike the Wahine game that’s going on now.Good win. Sat. against Irvine going to be a must see.
You know the team is getting good when they can play as poorly as they played tonight and still win. Ugly wins are always better than pretty losses!! Lets go Bows!!!
Undefeated on the road and let’s hope it continues on Saturday. Who would have thought? Oh yeah Texas Tech defeated UH in non-conference action.
And Texas Tech beat Oklahoma today.
That 3-pointer was huge and that outback dunk was awesome. Exciting last minute. Congrats!
Is there a video stream of the UC-Irvine game?
It was a good thing that Jankovic had his “career game”, because frankly for the first time this year, the ‘Bows didn’t deserve the win. Too many turnovers (20), and very poor interior defense. The Bows looked lethargic, and the CSUN drove the paint up the middle, at will. Poor shooting was the downfall of the Matadors. The Bows missed Valdes on offense – his defense has been sketchy. Bad calls are part of playing away – suck it up. If the Bows play against Irvine like they did in Honolulu, it will be a win; if they play like this game, the top of the Big West will be tied. Gotta play a better game both offense and defense on Saturday! Go Bows!