In switching things up from the comforts of home, the Hawaii basketball team is on the lookout for another changeup against UC Riverside today.
The Highlanders used rapidly switching man and zone defenses to befuddle the Rainbow Warriors in winning in Honolulu for the second straight time, 70-64 just eight days ago. UH (9-11, 3-4 Big West) and UCR (6-12, 4-3) meet in a rematch at Riverside’s 3,100-seat SRC Arena today, marking just the third road game of the season for the ’Bows.
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UH BASKETBALL TIPOFF AT UC RIVERSIDE
When: 6 p.m. today
Video streaming: ESPN3
Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
Series: UH leads 7-4
HAWAII RAINBOW WARRIORS (9-11, 3-4 BWC)
Projected starting lineups:
Pos. No. Player Ht. Wt. Cl.
PG 23 Brocke Stepteau 5-9 160 So.
SG 0 Leland Green 6-2 175 Fr.
SF 32 Noah Allen 6-7 215 Sr.
PF 12 Jack Purchase 6-8 200 So.
PF 21 Gibson Johnson 6-8 220 Jr.
When Hawaii has the ball
Allen has two 30-point games in his last four outings (30 vs. Cal State Northridge, 34 vs. UC Santa Barbara). If he achieves another this season hell become the 14th player in program history with three or more career 30-point performances. Roderick Bobbitt and Aaron Valdes were the last UH players to do so.
UC RIVERSIDE HIGHLANDERS (6-12, 4-3 BWC)
Projected starting lineups:
G 15 Dikymbe Martin 6-1 165 Fr.
G 0 Gentrey Thomas 6-4 195 Sr.
F 20 Secean Johnson 6-5 215 Sr.
F 40 James Jackson 6-8 240 Jr.
F 21 Alex Larsson 6-10 250 Jr.
When UC Riverside has the ball
Martin, a Riverside native whose father is a UCR alumnus, scored 17 points last Wednesday against Hawaii, a season high against a Division I opponent. Hes scored in double figures in the last three games after a total of three double-figure games in the previous 15. Over his recent hot streak, he is 5-for-8 from 3 (3-for-6 vs. UH).
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“They changed up their defenses a lot. Play after play, kind of threw us off offensively,” point guard Brocke Stepteau said before the Rainbow Warriors’ departure for Los Angeles on Tuesday. “So we’ve been preparing for that.”
Riverside coach Dennis Cutts said via phone Wednesday his team went to it because of his team’s shorthanded status that game; UCR left its starting backcourt back in Riverside for unspecified team reasons.
“We hadn’t done it. We hadn’t done it all year,” Cutts said of the tactic. “We put it in particularly knowing we were under(manned) in that game. … It just felt like it fit the team that we brought over there.”
It was one of two UH losses over a program-record five-game conference homestand, but UH closed it out with a 78-56 win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
Amazingly, 18 of 20 games this season have been played on Oahu. UH’s two road games to date are the fewest of any of 351 teams in NCAA Division I.
Now the hunt resumes for that first road win.
“I think we came together more as a team. Five games at home, won three of them, learned a lot,” Stepteau said. “Took some positive things from this and negative things in the games we lost. We’re coming off a good win where we played good defense. We’re going to try to carry that onto the road; defense helps you on the road a lot.”
The Gauchos were held to 28.6 percent shooting, a season low for a ’Bows opponent.
The ’Bows settled into the Inland Empire on Wednesday and practiced off campus in the afternoon instead of waiting until nightfall to get in a session in the student-run SRC Arena.
UH has never been swept home-and-home by Riverside in four previous Big West seasons.
“Certainly when you’re playing a team a second time it picks up,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “It’s unique playing a team a second time so quickly; we haven’t even played Cal Poly yet.”
Despite being held to eight points vs. UCR two games ago, senior wing Noah Allen remains the Big West’s hottest player.
The UCLA transfer is the BWC’s leading scorer in conference games (17.9 ppg) after averaging 24.6 points and 7.8 rebounds over the homestand, including a career-high 34 against UCSB. It was a dramatic response to an epic slump over the previous five games.
“This is more what you can expect from Noah,” Ganot said. “He’s done it in a variety of ways. … shoot the 3, attack the rim, post up, get to the foul line. Now he’s taking advantage of all those different ways to score.”
His matchup with Riverside’s 6-foot-5 forward Secean Johnson (11.4 ppg) looms large. Johnson succeeded at getting Allen in foul trouble on Jan. 25; it was Allen’s only disqualification to date.
“He’s got a little bit of size on Secean, but Secean’s got some athleticism,” Cutts said. “I think it’s a good matchup. Really impressed with (Allen). We’re obviously expecting him to come in here and really try to make some plays.”
Guards Chance Murray and Malik Thames, the guards who were left home, are expected to see action today.
UCR employed the same starting lineup it used at UH — inserting Dikymbe Martin and Gentrey Thomas into the first five — in a 63-59 home loss to Cal State Northridge three days after winning in Manoa. Murray and Thames played off the bench but the Highlanders saw their program record four-game conference winning streak come to an end.
“They made plays, we weren’t as sharp,” Cutts said. “That’s a lot to do with Northridge, probably a little to do with the trip. That’s a tough trip coming back.”
