‘Bows locked in at No. 1

DAVIS, CALIF. >> By no means did it look like a Big West championship kind of night.

But by any and all means necessary, Hawaii did what it’s done all year — weathered the storm — and took home its first conference regular-season title in 14 years.

The Rainbow Warriors played a horrid first half, trailed almost the whole way but made the decisive plays down the stretch for a heart-stopping 67-65 victory at UC Davis on Thursday, giving UH a share of its first Big West championship.

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt made the second of two free throws with 4.2 seconds left for a two-point lead, and Aggies guard Darius Graham had a pull-up, potential game-winning 3 rattle out at the buzzer.

After a moment’s hesitation, as if they could not believe the result, UH players and coaches mobbed each other on Davis’ Pavilion court, spoiling the Aggies’ senior night. They went into the visitors’ locker room and came back out with “2016 Big West Champions” T-shirts.

“Like I said all year, we’re tough as s—, you can quote me on that,” said forward Stefan Jankovic, who was limited with foul trouble but had the go-ahead three-point play with 1:24 to play. “It’s never going to be easy. Even the last shot they took went in and out. That’s just how our season’s been. Being tough and pushing through and never giving up.”

UH (24-4, 13-2) last won the regular season in the WAC in 2001-02, when the 27-win Rainbows went on to win the conference tournament and punched their most recent ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

That’s still the goal for these ’Bows, who are now assured an NIT berth at the very least.

“It’s unbelievable,” first-year UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Just very proud. It all hits you at once when the buzzer sounds, because you think about what this means. From Day 1, this team had these goals, and they put it aside. We’ve never talked about it, we know about it … but today we talked about one of them. It’s very hard to win a conference championship. It means you have to be consistent for a two-month stretch. To do it through what these guys have been through … just really proud of their resolve and their grit. This is their moment and they deserve it.”

Quincy Smith scored a team-high 15 points for UH. Sai Tummala added 14 points and Bobbitt 11.

UH is locked into a first-round tournament matchup with eighth-seeded Cal State Fullerton, which UH swept during the regular season, at 12:30 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The ‘Bows can claim the outright regular-season title with a win at Long Beach State (17-13, 11-4) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

For most of the night, it appeared that the Rainbows’ perfect run on the Big West road would end in Northern California. The Aggies scored the game’s first 11 points, closed the first half with a 14-2 run for an 11-point halftime lead and led by five with 3:35 to play.

Twenty of Davis’ 22 points came off UH turnovers in the first half. Part of the problem was early foul trouble for Jankovic and Bobbitt. UH got the comeback started with a 9-0 run out of the break, but would have to wait until the game’s final moments to retake the lead. Bobbitt played the final 6:39 with four fouls.

“The first half, we were playing out of character,” Smith said. “We had a lot of turnovers (13), weren’t making shots. The second half, we came out, we balled, we rebounded, we played defense, and ended up with the win.”

The ’Bows turned it over just three times after the break and got contributions from several sources to extend their record league mark on the mainland to 7-0.

Smith made the last of his career-high three 3s with 3:50 left; Stefan Jovanovic stuck a three-point play on a putback to get UH within two; Mike Thomas grabbed a board in traffic for his own putback with under three minutes to go.

The Rainbow Warriors went ahead for the first time in the half on Jankovic’s and-1 bucket. It was his only field goal.

Then, after Josh Fox missed on a take to the basket, Aaron Valdes had a 3-point try rattle out, but he read a Davis pass in the open court. After Valdes got his hands on the ball, his momentum carried him out of bounds — but not before he passed it ahead to Bobbitt for a dunk and a three-point lead with 25 seconds left.

“I just anticipated it,” Valdes said. “I had a feeling Rod was going to leak out as soon as he saw me go for it, so I knew Rod was (up) there. … That (basket) was big time.”

Said Bobbitt: “I knew he was falling out of bounds, so I tried to get his attention to know I was right there. He found me and then I took off.”

Davis missed a 3 and Bobbitt made one of two at the line for a four-point advantage with 16.2 seconds to play.

Davis’ Siler Schneider hit a 3 to make it a one-point game, but UH was able to get the ball back to Bobbitt on an inbounds pass and he was fouled with 4.2 seconds left and put in UH’s final point. The officials spent an interminable few minutes checking replay monitors for the correct time, and Bobbitt missed the first shot.

“The first one, it felt good and then it just died on the front rim,” Bobbitt said. “That kind of hurt, but I stepped up and hit the next one.”

Fox scored a game-high 19 points for Davis (10-18, 5-10), which suffered another heartbreaking loss to UC Irvine a week earlier and has dropped six straight, all by single digits. Fox was honored pregame as the team’s lone outgoing senior.

UCD shot 8-for-15 on 3-pointers to UH’s 8-for-26.

“We can’t let the result of these last two games dampen our energy and enthusiasm for how they’re playing at the right time of the year,” Davis coach Jim Les said. “They’re playing their best basketball when it means the most.”

BIG WEST

UC Irvine 72, Cal Poly 62

IRVINE, Calif. >> Mike Best scored 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, and Mamadou Ndiaye added 13 points, six rebounds, two steals and four blocked shots to help the Anteaters (23-8, 12-3 Big West Conference) beat the Mustangs (10-18, 4-11).

Alex Young had 14 points and five assists, while Luke Nelson added 12 and six for UC Irvine, which won its third in a row.

Cal Poly led 39-37 after a layup by David Nwaba with 16:48 to play, but Nelson sandwiched a Young 3-pointer between two of his own to spark a 12-0 run over the next 4½ minutes and take the lead for good.

Trevor John hit a 3 with 10:20 left that trimmed the Mustangs’ deficit to 51-49, but Best had a dunk and then made a layup and UC Irvine led by at least two possessions the rest of the way.

Nwaba scored a career-high 25 and added 10 rebounds for Cal Poly.

UC Santa Barbara 81, UC Riverside 55

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. >> Michael Bryson scored 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting to lead the Gauchos (16-12, 10-5 Big West) past the Highlanders (14-17, 5-10).

John Green added 14 points, including four 3-pointers, for Santa Barbara and Gabe Vincent had 11 points. The Gauchos shot 53 percent from the field (29-55) and hit 12 of 24 from long range to extend their win streak to seven, a record for the program since joining the Big West.

Gentrey Thomas, Jaylen Bland and Menno Dijkstra led Riverside with 10 points apiece.

BIG WEST MEN

Wednesday

Long Beach State 75, Cal State Fullerton 73

Thursday

Hawaii 67, UC Davis 65

UC Santa Barbara 81, UC Riverside 55

UC Irvine 72, Cal Poly 62

Saturday

Hawaii at Long Beach State, 2 p.m. HST

UC Irvine at UC UC Riverside

Cal Poly at UC Santa Barbara

UC Davis at CSUN

End of Regular Season

HAWAII 67, UC DAVIS 65

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 — UC Davis 36, Hawaii 25 3-point goals — Hawaii 8-26 (Tummala 3-6, Smith 3-8, Bobbitt 1-4, Valdes 1-5, Thomas 0-1, Jankovic 0-2). UCD 8-15 (Lemar 4-7, Schneider 3-4, Graham 1-4). Steals — Hawaii 5 (Valdes 3, Jankovic, Smith). UCD 7 (Goode 2, Lemar 2, Graham, Schneider, White). Blocked shots — Hawaii 3 (Jankovic 2, Jovanovic). UCD 2 (Fox, Goode). Turnovers — Hawaii 16 (Bobbitt 5, Smith 4, Thomas 2, Valdes 2, Filipovich, Tummala, Team) UCD 11 (Graham 3, Monson 3, White 2, Fox, Goode, Schneider). Technical fouls — Hawaii: None. UCD 1 (Lemar). Officials — David Hall, Eric Curry, Rob Rorke. A — 2,247.