On a night when a leaky roof drenched several seats in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, the Hawaii basketball team sealed tight a berth in next week’s Big West Tournament.
A crowd of 2,699 saw Bernardo da Silva score 18 points, grab 12 rebounds and make a key defensive strip with 3.1 seconds left as the Rainbow Warriors held off Cal State Northridge 72-70.
By improving to 10-9 in league play, the ’Bows clinched a spot in next week’s eight-team tournament in Henderson, Nev. The ’Bows also maintained their position as the fourth seed, which, if it holds, would give them a first-round bye.
The ’Bows did not make a field goal in the final 3:55 as their 13-point lead dwindled to 71-70 after CSUN’s De’Sean Allen-Eikens drained a 3 with 12.6 seconds to play. UH center Bernardo da Silva was immediately fouled.
Da Silva, who had missed seven of his first 12 free throws, did not connect on his first attempt. But he made the second free throw to give the ’Bows a 72-70 lead.
Dionte Bostick, CSUN’s most creative scorer, then drove the lane where he was met by 6-foot-9 da Silva. Da Silva jumped straight up and on the descent, knocked the ball from Bostick across the baseline. After a review, UH’s possession was reaffirmed.
“I was just trying to stay disciplined, trying to make the right play,”da Silva said. “Just stay solid. I know he likes to pump fake and stuff. … I kind of went up. I kind of touched the ball as (I) came down.”
UH assistant coach Rob Jones said: “That’s a big focus we’ve had recently, the verticality. … It’s been something we’ve focused on the last few weeks, and it’s starting to pay off. We knew they’re a paint-cover team. They’re gonna attack. Our bigs gotta wall up.”
CSUN forward Kyle Frelow knocked an inbounds pass intended for UH’s Justin McKoy out of bounds with 1.8 seconds to go.
This time, UH offensive coordinator Brad Davidson called for a deep pass. Ryan Rapp lofted a long pass that McKoy chased down inches from the opposite end line as time expired.
“I messed it up, actually,” McKoy said. “Brad drew it up for me to go long. But I thought Rapp was stuck so I tried to make an audible. It got deflected, and I actually listened to coach and it worked. … I knew I had to at least touch the ball so time ran out. My first thought was to throw it. And then my second thought was I could get it. I grabbed it. It worked out really well.”
Asked how much space he had, McKoy said, “absolutely none. … If I fell out of bounds, they’d have to go the length in about half a second. I knew it was important to just touch it.”
Davidson said: “Lucky he didn’t have one size bigger shoes. He would have stepped out of bounds.”
The short-handed Matadors were without their best defender, forward Mahmoud Fofana, who suffered an Achilles injury. Earlier in the season, point guard Jordan Brinson was lost for the season after suffering an Achilles injury. Hunt, a double transfer from Oregon State and Sacramento State, has started at the point as Brinson’s replacement.
“I thought the guys fought hard,” CSUN coach Andy Newman said. “They came back from a big deficit. We just hit those little lulls. We got out-rebounded 41-36, which is pretty significant for us. We kind of hung our hat on defending and rebounding.”
The Matadors entered their regular-season finale 14th nationally in rebounding at 40.2 per game.
McKoy and Noel Coleman contributed 14 points apiece for the ’Bows. Juan Munoz hit three 3s and finished with 13 points.
Allen-Eikens scored a game-high 34 for the Matadors.
HAWAII 72, CAL STATE
NORTHRIDGE 70
MATADORS (18-14, 9-11)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Bostick, 39 6-14 1-1 5 4 4 13
Jones 21 0-3 0-0 1 1 5 0
Hunt 38 4-10 0-0 8 3 5 9
Sangha 21 4-8 0-0 2 0 3 8
Allen-Eikens 3614-23 3-4 9 2 2 34
Frelow 16 3-3 0-0 2 2 3 6
Barnett 6 0-3 0-0 2 0 2 0
Ndjonga 20 0-4 0-0 2 0 2 0
Tucker 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 5
TOTALS 200 31-68 4-5 36 12 26 70
RAINBOW WARRIORS (18-13, 10-9)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
McKoy 26 5-11 3-3 8 2 3 14
Coleman 33 4-13 4-4 7 2 2 14
da Silva 35 6-10 6-1412 1 0 18
Rapp 23 1-5 1-1 4 1 2 3
Munoz 31 4-9 2-4 1 4 1 13
Williams 2 1-1 0-0 1 0 1 2
Beattie 24 2-5 0-0 0 4 2 5
McClanahan 6 0-0 0-0 3 1 0 0
Rouhliadeff 11 1-2 0-0 1 0 1 3
Jacobs 8 0-3 0-0 2 0 1 0
TEAM 2
TOTALS 200 24-59 16-26 41 15 13 72
Key — min: minutes played; fg-a: field goals
made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; a: assists; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points.
Halftime — Hawaii 26, Cal State
Northridge 25
3-point goals — CSUN 4-12 (Allen-Eikens
3-5, Hunt 1-2, Barnett 0-1, Bostick 0-2, Ndjonga 0-2). Hawaii 8-25 (Munoz 3-7, Coleman 2-9, Beattie 1-1, McKoy 1-2,
Rouhliadeff 1-2, Rapp 0-2, Jacobs 0-2).
Steals — CSUN 6 (Ndjonga 3, Hunt 2,
Frelow). Hawaii 4 (Beattie, Coleman, da
Silva, McKoy). Blocked shots — CSUN 6
(Jones 2, Ndjonga 2, Bostick, Allen-Eikens).
Hawaii 4 (da Silva 2, Coleman, McKoy).
Turnovers — CSUN 15 (Hunt 4, Bostick 3,
Allen-Eikens 2, Jones 2, Ndjonga 2, Sangha
2). Hawaii 17 (Rapp 4, Munoz 3, Beattie 2,
McClanahan 2, McKoy 2, Rouhliadeff 2, da
Silva, Jacobs). Technical fouls — none.
Officials — Mike Littlewood, Deron White,
Jeff Ketchu. A — 2,699.
BIG WEST MEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 15 3 .833 — 22 8
UC San Diego 14 4 .778 1 20 10
UC Davis 12 6 .667 3 17 12
Long Beach St. 10 8 .556 5 18 12
Hawaii 10 9 .526 5½ 18 13
CS Northridge 9 11 .450 7 18 14
UCSB 8 10 .444 7 15 13
UC Riverside 8 10 . 444 7 13 17
CSU Bakersfield 8 11 .421 7½ 13 17
CS Fullerton 7 11 .389 8 14 16
Cal Poly 0 18 .000 15 4 26
Wednesday
Hawaii 72, Cal State Northridge 70
Today
Cal State Fullerton at UC Riverside
Cal Poly at UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara at Long Beach State
UC Davis at UC San Diego
Saturday
Cal State Bakersfield at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC Davis at Long Beach State
Cal Poly at UC San Diego
UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
End of regular season
