Hawaii hopes to keep Manoa Magic going

A basketball neophyte attending either of the past two games in the Stan Sheriff Center could be forgiven for wondering the purpose of those curious displays ticking down from 30 above either basket.

The shot clocks simply weren’t needed in Hawaii’s shootouts with Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge, as the Rainbow Warriors (8-9, 2-2 Big West) won both up-and-down games in thrilling fashion for their first conference wins of the season.

But they figure to be required in tonight’s matchup with UC Davis (11-8, 3-1), an experienced, team used to grinding opponents down. The Aggies start four seniors and a junior.

“They’re a lot different than the last couple teams that we played in that they’re gonna guard you for the full 30 seconds of the shot clock,” UH associate coach Adam Jacobsen said. “You go from teams that are trying to outscore you to teams that are trying to guard you, and try to hold you down to win the game.

“You gotta screen ‘em and you gotta move the ball, make good plays to break them down.”

But Davis coach Jim Les has seen enough of UH of late to be concerned about becoming the ’Bows’ third straight last-second victim.

“We’re facing arguably the hottest team in the Big West right now,” Les said. “So we’re really going to have to play well if we’re going to get out of here with a W.”

That takes on extra meaning when you consider league-leading UC Irvine is 5-0 and has won those games by an average of 17.8 points. The crowd-igniting buzzer-beaters by Noah Allen and Leland Green have made the rounds.

“It’s made for a few sleepless nights this week, let’s put it that way,” Les said. “That’s how impressed I’ve been. They’ve been getting contributions from a lot of different places. Guys are playing hard. To me, making plays late in the game, and getting it from a number of different guys on both ends of the floor, has been really impressive.”

Forward Gibson Johnson, who himself has a late winning basket — with 6.3 seconds left vs. Florida Atlantic in the Rainbow Classic — tried to take the recent highlights with a measured approach.

“I think we have better basketball still to come, but we played more consistently our basketball for longer periods of time, against two really good teams in our conference,” Johnson said.

Johnson, at 6-foot-8, is of comparable height to Davis’ front line.

“(Davis is) a solid team,” he said. “The thing about our offense, though, if we do what we’re supposed to do, it shouldn’t matter who we’re playing. … And work hard for boards and on defense.”

Around Northern California, second-place Davis has drawn some comparisons to its regular-season championship team of 2014-15. That team succeeded with peerless offensive efficiency, led by Corey Hawkins. This team does it with a defense-first mentality and a balanced offense.

The most notable weapon is junior forward Chima Moneke, a 6-foot-6 junior from Australia. Moneke (14.7 ppg, BWC-best 8.3 rpg) has been compared as a more mobile Josh Fox, the departed Aggies forward who scored 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the teams’ last meeting at the Sheriff last Jan. 23, won 78-62 by UH.

Davis nearly got payback at its Pavilion on March 3, as UH started slow, then celebrated a Big West championship. The ’Bows rallied late and caught a break when Darius Graham’s desperation pull-up 3 from 35 feet rimmed out at the buzzer.

Now the starting guard trio of Graham, Brynton Lemar and Lawrence White, plus sophomore Siler Schneider off the bench, form a hard-to-contain rotation of dribble-drive playmakers. Those four account for 55 percent of UCD’s scoring and 72 percent of its assists.

“They don’t run as many plays, but they penetrate and pitch and play off of each other,” Jacobsen said.

UH might get sophomore guard Sheriff Drammeh back from an injury absence, but figures to come off the bench if he plays. He missed the last game with a pinched nerve after starting all 16 before that.

After Allen’s combined outburst of 55 points in the last two games, he’s back up to 12.4 ppg this season.