Hawaii survives nail-biter

A game billed as a tossup was still up in the air with 1.6 seconds left.

Hawaii rose to the occasion on Utah Valley’s last-gasp play, knocking away the ball on a lobbed inbounds pass into the right corner and surviving for a 70-69 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Finally, after 19 lead changes and that defensive stop, the Sunday evening crowd of 2,827 could exhale as the Rainbow Warriors improved to 7-2 with their third straight win.

“What a game. What a life, huh?” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “That was an intense, physical battle. We kinda knew that coming in. Probably our best win of the year, certainly our best defensive performance of the year.”

UVU, dubbed “Second Chance U” by coach Mark Pope for his roster constructed of transfer players, had a second chance to win it after Conner Toolson’s missed 3 from the top of the arc in the waning seconds. UH guard Drew Buggs — who’d missed two at the line with 15.6 seconds left to keep hopes alive for the Wolverines — was called for traveling on the rebound with 1.6 seconds left.

But the Wolverines couldn’t find a clean look inbounding along the baseline and were forced to lob it high in tight quarters. Sheriff Drammeh, who scored a career-high 20 points — including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 37.5 seconds left — was credited with the steal from UVU guard Brandon Randolph. Drammeh launched the ball up to the catwalks in celebration.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to give up a good look on an out of bounds play with one second left,” said center Gibson Johnson, who added 15 points on 11-for-14 free-throw shooting. “We were just really happy to get the job done.”

Now it’s on to the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. UH faces a top-five team in Miami (9-0) in the opening round Friday.

Battle-tested UVU (7-5), which faced powerhouses Kentucky and Duke the first two days of the season, was a strong opening act for the DHC and refused to fold despite being held to 35.8 percent shooting from the field. The WAC team largely made up for it with a 27-for-32 effort (84.4 percent) at the line.

Jake Toolson led UVU with 18 points, but it was Conner Toolson (2-for-13 shooting) who got the last look.

“I think he got a pretty good look at it,” UVU’s Pope said. “Probably could have gotten into the lane but the guys executed well.

“It was a tough game for us, we’re really disappointed. My guys have shown a propensity to grow from hard games like this. I think we have a chance to become a good team by the end of the season.”

UH went toe to toe, if not eye to eye, with UVU’s imposing front line. The ’Bows frustrated and contained the Wolverines’ best player, 7-foot center Akolda Manyang, to four points and eight rebounds, and prevented his backups from going off. They went up for the last time on Zach Nelson’s post up of Johnson with 48.3 seconds to go.

Manyang tried once, twice, thrice to convert a much-needed putback in a tight game with under 13 minutes left.

Hawaii’s 6-foot-8 center Johnson frustrated the 7-footer into misses each time. Manyang was called for a loose ball foul, lost his temper, and slammed the ball in frustration. He drew a technical foul and was dismissed from the game — a huge swing of momentum — with 12:31 to play.

Johnson attempted to use his speed against Manyang, whom he played with in pick-up ball over the summer.

“You can never slip up with a guy like that or he’s going to be dunking on you,” Johnson said.

Techs were also issued to UH forward Jack Purchase and the UH bench for rowdiness.

“We knew it was going to be intense and it pretty quickly got to that point,” Ganot said. “Our guys gutted through.”

Brocke Stepteau (seven points, career-high-tying seven assists) added to his heroics off the bench, rallying his team with a pair of floaters after it trailed by four with under eight minutes to play.

He drove into the paint and kicked out to Drammeh on a designed play for the game’s last bucket.

“I enjoy those type of moments, ever since I’ve been playing basketball. My team has a lot of confidence in me to make the right decision,” Stepteau said. “Today it was hitting Sheriff for the open 3.”

Backup center Ido Flaisher provided six important points off the bench on 3-for-3 shooting.

Johnson’s younger brother, Mckay, a UVU sophomore guard, did not get into the game.