Thomas leads Hawaii in decisive win

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. >> Ruins resulting from frustration provided the foundation for one of Hawaii’s most dominant performances Saturday night.

The Rainbow Warriors used an early blitz to overwhelm Cal State Northridge 65-46 at Northridge’s Matadome to earn their first Big West Conference victory.

Mike Thomas played the pivotal role. The 6-foot-7 forward made 10 of 11 shots to score 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to tie his season best. Thomas stymied the Matadors’ leading scorer, Tavrion Dawson, and provided an element beyond the statistical.

“He was a stud tonight with his leadership, his presence, his voice,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “The big thing with Mike is keeping him on the floor. He’s had foul-trouble demons.

“He’s averaging 12 points and six rebounds, but he’s doing that in 21 minutes. Tonight, he played 34. He was an absolute stud and our guys fed off that.”

Among them were Gibson Johnson and Drew Buggs. Johnson added a season-high 10 rebounds, tied another season best with three blocks, made one steal and scored eight points despite recovering from an undisclosed illness. Buggs passed for a career-best 11 assists and added 11 points and two steals.

Thomas understood the stakes after Thursday night’s 89-81 loss at Long Beach State.

“I was definitely motivated to give my team a win,” the senior said. “We needed this road win bad. That was the main thing.”

Helping Thomas’ motivation was the fact that he was playing in front of family and friends.

“I’m home right now,” he said. “My parents live five minutes away. It amps you a little bit.”

The ’Bows (10-5, 1-1) began the game with amplified intensity. Thomas collected six points and three rebounds as UH used its transition game to build a 19-4 advantage with 7:17 gone. The visitors made five of their first six field-goal attempts and eight of their first 13, mostly from inside.

“When we play like that offensively,” Ganot said, “we can take away teams’ legs.”

Defensively, the ’Bows forced CSUN (3-12, 0-1) to miss seven of its first eight shots. Dawson — the conference’s player of the week after averaging 26.5 points, seven rebounds and three assists in two victories — did not score until 5:59 had expired. The 6-foot-8 senior had just five points in the first half before finishing with 12 on 5-for-20 shooting.

“While he got 12 points,” Ganot said, “he took 20 shots to do that.”

Thomas attributed his defensive success to “just being solid, staying in front of him and getting my chest into his shoulder whenever he’s driving,” he said. “He’s a really good player and a good finisher. He kind of mirrors my game a little bit, but he has a little more freedom offensively.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff Drammeh and Leland Green took turns guarding Micheal Warren, the Matadors’ second-leading scorer, and held him to nine points — Warren’s third-lowest output of the season.

The ’Bows also owned CSUN’s backboard. With eight minutes left in the first half, UH held a 10-1 rebounding advantage at the Matadors’ glass. After securing their first offensive rebound 1:19 into the game, the hosts waited 15 minutes, 13 seconds before collecting another.

UH was so dominant that CSUN coach Reggie Theus called a timeout three minutes into the game and sent a message to his team by pulling four of his five starters — including Dawson.

The ’Bows extended the margin to 21 points before settling for a 38-24 halftime lead. UH then began the second half by scoring six points in 54 seconds to build a 45-24 advantage 1:26 into that half. The visitors would lead by as many as 23 points.

The victory provided a dramatic contrast to Thursday night’s loss, in which UH trailed Long Beach State by 14 points in the final 13 minutes.

“I’ll be diplomatic: It was incredibly disappointing,” Ganot said. “I think they took it personally. We all did. But I’m just so proud of the way they handled it.

“They got their rest. The next day, there was a crisp, energetic practice and a great video session. Today was one of our best walk-throughs, and we usually have great walk-throughs. Then they imposed their will in the first five minutes of each half.”

Lyrik Shrener added 11 points for CSUN, while Terrell Gomez finished with 10 points and five assists. But the Matadors shot a season-low 27.5 percent. That and their point total were season lows for a UH opponent.

“Hawaii is not that much different than we are,” Theus said. “They have a bunch of guys that contribute, but their level of physicality was double our guys’ tonight. That really was it.”