With wide-spreading distributions of contributions, the Hawaii basketball team rolled to Thursday’s 78-67 road victory over Cal State Bakersfield in Bakersfield, Calif.
A crowd of 1,129 in the Icardo Center saw the Rainbow Warriors control the first half (41-23), the boards (35-23) and then the Roadrunners to end a three-game losing streak and improve to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in the Big West. The Roadrunners are 5-9 and 0-3.
Icardo is considered a challenging venue for visiting teams. But the ’Bows now have won all three meetings there since the Roadrunners joined the Big West four years ago.
“They’re a good program,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of the Roadrunners. “They’re very good at home. They lost their first (Big West home game this season) to Irvine, and Irvine was down at the half. … A double-digit win on the road is never easy. We have work to do. But I’m proud of our guys.”
Point guard JoVon McClanahan scored a team-high 19 points and led a collective that held CSUB’s Kaleb Higgins to 13 points on 5-for-13 shooting. Higgins, who entered averaging 17.2 points, was 2-for-5 in the fist half.
“He still made some tough shots,” McClanahan said. “Any good player, you’ve got to make it tough for him. That’s what we tried to do: make it tough for him.”
UH center Bernardo da Silva hit his six shots — all from the paint on baby hooks, layups and turn-around jumpers — and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.
Forward Justin McKoy contributed points from far (three 3s) and near (driving layups). Noel Coleman, one of UH’s tri-captains, hit two of 10 shots, but grabbed six rebounds, swished all six of his free throws, and contained Marvin McGhee III to seven points. McGhee was CSUB’s leading scorer in Big West games.
The ’Bows also received a boost from the second unit of center Mor Seck, forward Harry Rouhliadeff, and guards Matt Cotton, Tom Beattie and Juan Munoz.
“We’ll play 10 guys in the game, 10 guys in the first half,” Ganot said. “We’re going to need everybody to be ready.”
The ’Bows departed on Tuesday afternoon for Los Angeles, then made the long drive to Bakersfield ahead of Thursday’s game. They had a detailed practice on Wednesday.
“I loved the way we came out of the gates,” Ganot said. “I loved the way we finished the first half.”
With McKoy retreating to the wings, the Roadrunners spread their man-to-man defense, widening the lanes for McClanahan on drives off ball screens. UH led 12-9 when McKoy drove for a loud jam and, on the next possession, Seck’s screen cleared the way for Munoz’s driving layup.
The ’Bows closed the half with McClanahan’s two 3s and da Silva’s hook.
The ’Bows scored 14 of their final 18 points on free throws. They were 18-for-25 from the line in the second half.
“I think we’ll break through at the free-throw line,” Ganot said of nine overall missed free throws, “but we’re still getting to the line. We know we’re a good shooting team, and we shot it well tonight (54.5% on field goals). I know we’re not as good if we stay on our heels, so we’ll stay aggressive.”
Dalph Panopio, who recently returned to the CSUB lineup after recovering from ailments, came off the bench to tie a career-high 23 points.
“They’re a good team that’s going to have their run (in the second half),” Ganot said. “We weathered that, finished strong.”
The ’Bows complete their two-game road trip against Cal State Northridge on Saturday.
HAWAII 78, CSU BAKERSFIELD 67
RAINBOW WARRIORS (9-5, 1-1)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
McClanahan 30 6-9 5-10 2 4 2 19
da Silva 33 6-6 6-10 8 1 1 18
McKoy 28 6-9 3-3 3 0 5 18
Coleman 36 2-10 6-6 6 1 2 11
Rapp 10 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 3
Beattie 16 1-1 2-2 3 1 4 5
Cotton 19 1-4 0-0 2 1 2 2
Munoz 10 1-3 0-0 2 0 0 2
Rouhliadeff 11 0-0 0-0 3 0 3 0
Seck 7 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 0
TEAM 6
TOTALS 200 24-44 22-31 35 8 21 78
ROADRUNNERS (5-9, 0-3)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Higgins 30 5-13 2-3 1 2 4 13
McGhee III 28 2-7 2-2 1 0 4 7
Kancleris 23 2-5 0-0 6 0 1 4
Okereke 11 1-4 0-0 1 0 4 2
Wilbon 8 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0
Panopio 31 9-13 3-3 3 0 1 23
Stephenson 22 4-7 7-10 2 0 0 15
Jarusevicius 20 1-5 1-1 1 1 4 3
Mark 14 0-0 0-0 1 2 2 0
Gaskin 9 0-1 0-0 3 1 0 0
Alexander 4 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0
TEAM 2
TOTALS 200 24-57 15-19 23 6 21 67
Halftime — Hawaii 41, CSU Bakersfield 23
3-point goals — Hawaii 8-19 (McKoy 3-5,
McClanahan 2-3, Beattie 1-1, Rapp 1-1,
Coleman 1-4, Munoz 0-2, Cotton 0-3). CSU
Bakersfield 4-15 (Panopio 2-3, McGhee III
1-4, Higgins 1-5, Jarusevicius 0-1, Kancleris
0-1, Stephenson 0-1). Steals — Hawaii 2
(Coleman, McKoy). CSU Bakersfield 5
(Mark 2, Stephenson 2, Kancleris). Blocked
shots — Hawaii 1 (da Silva). CSU Bakersfield
2 (Mark, Okereke). Turnovers — Hawaii
15 (McClanahan 3, McKoy 3, Coleman
2, da Silva 2, Rouhliadeff 2, Beattie, Cotton,
Munoz). CSU Bakersfield 8 (Kancleris 2,
Higgins, Gaskin, Mark, McGhee III, Okereke,
Panopio). Technical fouls — none. Officials
— Kristyne Esparza, Casey
McClellan, Deldre Carr. A — 1,129.
BIG WEST MEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 3 0 1.000 — 10 5
UC Davis 3 0 1.000 — 8 6
CS Northridge 2 0 1.000 — 11 3
UC San Diego 2 0 1.000 ½ 8 6
Long Beach St. 2 1 .667 1 10 5
Hawaii 1 1 .500 1½ 9 5
CS Fullerton 1 2 .333 2 8 7
UC Riverside 1 2 .333 2 6 9
UCSB 0 3 .000 3 7 6
CSU Bakersfield 0 3 .000 3 5 9
Cal Poly 0 3 .000 3 4 11
Thursday
Hawaii 78, Cal State Bakersfield 67
Long Beach State 89, Cal Poly 82
UC Davis 83, UC Riverside 63
UC Irvine 75, Cal State Fullerton 67
UC San Diego 79, UC Santa Barbara 72
Saturday
Hawaii at Cal State Northridge, 3 p.m.
UC Davis at UC Irvine
UC Riverside at Long Beach State
UC San Diego at Cal State Fullerton
UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly
