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UH beats Cal Poly for 4th straight win

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hawaii guard Sheriff Drammeh (23) passes the ball to forward Zigmars Raimo (14) around Cal Poly forward Zach Gordon (44) during the first half of a college basketball game between the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and the Cal Poly Mustangs tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

Noah Allen enjoyed another big game and the Hawaii basketball team continued its late-season improvement with a 74-65 win over Cal Poly tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH pulled away late and captured its season-best fourth straight victory, moving it into a three-way tie for third place in the Big West in front of a crowd of 3,765.

Allen continued his torrid tear with 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting to go with nine rebounds as UH (12-11, 6-4 Big West) shot 51.8 percent overall. Forward Gibson Johnson added 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, Jack Purchase scored 11 on 4-for-5 shooting and center Ido Flaisher contributed 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Hawaii missed shooting guard Leland Green due to illness for the second straight game. Sheriff Drammeh started in his stead and recorded nine points and four assists.

Cal Poly (7-17, 2-8), the best team in the Big West at taking care of the ball, committed a season-high 16 turnovers. UH gave it away just three times in the first half and 10 for the game, tying a season low.

Poly was held to 39.1 percent shooting. Ridge Shipley led the Mustangs with 19 points.

UH shot 51.7 percent in the first half to Cal Poly’s 37.5 percent and was five better in turnovers committed, but led just 38-31 at halftime. Allen had 13 points in the period on 5-for-8 shooting.

Shipley scored eight points in a row for the Mustangs late in the half to keep the visitors around.

Victor Joseph opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers and Jakub Niziol hit from the corner to knot the score at 40.

The ’Bows went inside to Johnson twice for buckets and Flaisher scored on a third-effort putback to extend the lead back to six.

Flaisher scored the next two field goals for UH as well — including an impressive left-handed ball fake to a right-handed hook shot — and UH led 51-44 wtih 11:54 to play. It helped launch a 10-0 run and the ’Bows claimed a 12-point lead.

Kyle Toth hit a deep 3 for Poly to get the deficit to eight, but Flaisher came back with a strong putback in traffic to make it 60-50.

Mustangs guard Donovan Fields hit a 3 to keep the margin at 10 with 5:42 to play. He followed up with a steal off Drammeh near midcourt and a layup.

Jack Purchase got an easy putback of a front-end miss of Allen’s 1-and-1 free throw to extend the lead to 70-57. Johnson got a wide-open layup on a feed from Matt Owies the next time down and UH was in control from there.

UH continues play at home Saturday against second-place UC Irvine (14-12, 7-3).

4 responses to “UH beats Cal Poly for 4th straight win”

  1. WalkoffBalk says:

    They’re on a roll. Another victory and guess who won’t be making a comment.

  2. miz says:

    Hope they can get another Noah Allen type for next year.

  3. oldertimer808 says:

    Every win is a good win and my hats off to our coaching staff. I never thought that we would be at 12 and 11. Our wahine softball team got two wins tonight. Good hitting by Pontastico in the second game going 3 for 3 with a homer from Campbell High School..first year player.

  4. dixylicious says:

    What a great group of guys. No drama, no fights….
    What could the NCAA be waiting for? If they comeback with their position unchanged or a small teeak like we get back one scholarship, there needs to be a major investigation on them. Crazy!

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