After hot start, UH falls to UC Irvine
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii guard Sheriff Drammeh battled for a loose ball with UC Irvine guard Jaron Martin during the first half.
Hawaii led by 10 points early, but UC Irvine dominated the rest of the first half on the way to a 72-58 victory in a Big West men’s basketball game tonight.
The Rainbow Warriors (12-12 overall) had their four-game winning streak snapped before a crowd of 5,781 at the Stan Sheriff Center and fell to 6-5 and a fourth-place tie in the conference, 2 1/2 games behind first-place UC Davis.
Gibson Johnson led Hawaii with 19 points.
Luke Nelson scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the second half as the Anteaters (15-12) climbed to 8-3 and remained second in the league standings, a half-game behind Davis.
Hawaii bolted to a 14-4 lead as Noah Allen scored six of his 18 points.
Irvine then scored the next 12 points to take the lead. Allen hit a jumper to tie it at 16 at the 9:19 mark, but Hawaii didn’t score again until an Allen layup with 3:31 left, after the Anteaters had built a 27-16 lead.
Then Nelson hit two long shots in the final minute of the half and UCI led 35-20 at the break.
The Anteaters extended the lead to 53-34 midway through the second half, but Gibson scored 12 points to get UH to a 62-51 deficit with 3:50 left.
But Hawaii never cut the lead to less than double-digits in the second half.
UC Irvine outrebounded Hawaii 39-22.
UH has five regular-season games remaining. It goes on the road for games next Thursday at UC Santa Barbara and Saturday at Cal Poly, followed by Senior Night against Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 25. Games at UC Davis on March 2 and at Long Beach State on March 4 end the schedule.
Hawaii has yet to receive a decision from the NCAA on an appeal of a postseason ban that would keep the Rainbow Warriors out of the Big West tournament.
7 responses to “After hot start, UH falls to UC Irvine”
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Ganot only looks good against the really lousy teams in the bottom 1/3rd of the Nation like Cal Poly – 316th, UC Riverside – 304, and CSUN – 251. UH was competitive for about 8 minutes then reality set in. On ESPN comment Board “31-6 last 13:33. That’s just embarrassing” and “2 points in the last 10 min is pathetic [in first half]”
0 and 9 against teams with RPIs of 200 or better. Only competitive/won against bottom 3rd teams. Similar to Chow who was also only competitive/won against teams in the bottom 3rd of the Nation. Benji’s strenght of schedule was 171 versus 294 now, more than a 100 places tougher than Ganot’s current schedule with almost twice as much wins, and at that time SA was complaining that Benji’s schedule was too weak but now not a peep from SA. What’s worse is that a winning record isn’t assured, UH has 2 more teams that they already lost to on their schedule, and UH has had a winning records for several years now. UH deserves to be better.
Ganot certainly gets a pass this year but the talent level and schedule needs to be seriously upgraded. He made a huge mistake in bringing in so many freshmen that have no business on a D-1 team. Now he’s locked in unless he has it in him to let some of his guys go. Stick with them and his future is in jeopardy in the next couple of years.
Your comment blatantly overlooks the fact of the impacts that the NCAA sanctions had on recruiting reducing the number of available scholarships not to mention the early departure of existing starters. As far as scheduling goes Hawaii brings in some good teams particularly during pre-conference tournaments and the Big West is a competitive conference. Any coach can win with good talent but the mark of an excellent coach is teaching and grooming recruits to reach their full athletic potential. UH will never attract the numbers of blue chip players that the big name programs do. Therefore Ganot is an asset as this season has demonstrated that he and his staff have molded the players they have into a competitive team exceeding expectations. That is a credit to Ganot and his staff as not all coaches can do that.
There you are, Pacific! Knew you’d show up after a loss! Still want to know why you hate Coach Ganot so much. In fact, looking at your comments more closely, perhaps YOU are Coach Taylor?
Pacificsports only comments when they lose and is conspicuously silent when they win.
all true but his entire schedule is so weak and unimportant
Irvine was a very good team. They will go to the NCAA tournament and I think they will make the sweet 16 if they get some help in the scheduling. There is no such thing as a good loss, but UH learned a lot about themselves in this game.