Incredible rally propels Hawaii basketball past Northridge

Hawaii trailed by 17 points midway through the second half, but beat Cal State Northridge 80-75 with a tremendous comeback before a frenzied season-high turnstile crowd of 5,311 tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Zigmars Raimo scored on a power layup with 40 seconds left, giving UH its first lead, 76-75, since early in the first half.

Terrell Gomez shot an air ball from 18 feet, UH’s Dawson Carper grabbed the rebound, and Justin Webster was fouled with 13 seconds left.

COMEBACK COMPLETE.#HawaiiMBB rallies from 17 points down to stun CSUN 80-75.

UH moves to 14-6 and 5-1 in the Big West. 4-0 at home. pic.twitter.com/EbFxBFkub4

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) February 2, 2020

Webster made both free throws to put the Rainbows up 78-75.

CSUN still had a chance to tie with 10 seconds left, but Lamine Diane slid with the ball in his possession for a traveling turnover with three seconds left. UH’s Justin Hemsley dunked at the buzzer for the final score.

UH improved to 14-6 overall and 5-1 in the Big West with its fourth win in a row and sixth in its last seven games. In UH’s last outing, a week earlier, it beat UC Davis 76-75 on a last-second basket by Eddie Stansberry.

The Matadors fell to 9-15 and 4-4.

>> Click here for photos from tonight’s game

Stansberry led Hawaii with 22 points and Raimo finished with 20. Webster scored 17.

Stansberry’s 3-pointer with 3:40 left closed the score to 72-70. Hawaii had battled back gradually after trailing 65-49 with around 10 minutes left in the game.

Diane scored 23 points with 11 rebounds for the Matadors.

CSUN jumped out to an 18-10 lead as the Matadors went on a 10-0 run that was finally halted by Hemsley’s 3-pointer with 11:34 to go in the half.

Drew Buggs hit a floater as the shot clock expired and a 3-pointer, followed by another 3-pointer by Stansberry. Hawaii closed to 25-21 with 8:12 left in the first half, and CSUN called for a timeout.

Elijah Harkless scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, and CSUN led 41-32.

Webster hit a 3-pointer to open the second-half scoring, but the Rainbows still struggled as the Matadors extended their lead to 56-39.

Hawaii played for the third game in a row without 6-foot-9 starting forward Bernardo da Silva and for the second consecutive game without 6-foot-6 starting forward Samuta Avea.

The Warriors went on a mini-run to close the deficit to 58-45, but Diane then hit a desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, returning momentum to the Matadors.

But UH made another run, closing it to 65-59 with less than nine minutes left as Stansberry and Webster hit 3-pointers and Carper made two layups.

Hawaii continued to slowly chip away, and Raimo’s layup cut the CSUN lead to one, 75-74, with 2:17 left.