Dominating from “Hawaii Pono‘i” to the final horn, the Hawaii basketball men never lost control in Saturday night’s 82-57 rout of Cal State Fullerton in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 4,035 saw the Rainbow Warriors convert from near (40 paint points) and far (10 3-point shots) to improve to 13-9 overall and 5-6 in the Big West.
The ’Bows had only 46 hours to recover from a loss to UC San Diego on a stormy Thursday night. Aside from conquering turnover problems, the ’Bows were determined to construct a strong start.
But the mechanisms in the arena were not cooperative. The ’Bows scored five of the game’s first seven points when the shot clock experienced a series of malfunctions. In all, there were four stoppages totaling about 15 minutes to reboot the clock.
“We didn’t want this lull to affect us,” forward Harry Rouhliadeff said. “We still wanted to come out with the same intensity and aggression. We wanted this win really bad. We didn’t let it affect us. That was what coach (Eran Ganot) was really harping on a lot through that period where they were trying to replace the shot clock.”
When play resumed normally, UH wing Akira Jacobs swished a 3 and Rouhliadeff had his way in the deep corners and post as the ’Bows broke away to leads of 15-2 and 22-4.
“I thought our guys were ready to rock and roll,” CSUF coach Dedrique Taylor said. “I don’t think the delay of games, the multiple times it happened … it happens once, it happens twice, OK. But three, four, five, six times? I’m not saying that had anything to do with anything. But it doesn’t help.”
In taking a 37-20 lead into the intermission, the ’Bows held an opponent to a season low in first-half production. The Titans entered hitting 27.5% of their 3s, a deficiency resulting in teams packing the lane and daring long shots. In the first half, the Titans obliged, missing all seven 3-point attempts. They shot 6-for-27 in the first half.
At the start of the second half, the ’Bows turned their offense outside-in. Center Tanner Christensen drifted to the top of the key, then fired to guard Tom Beattie on a back cut. Beattie soared for a dunk.
On the next UH possession, Rouhliadeff found the keys to the backdoor, converting a pass from Beattie into a dunk.
“Electric,” Rouhliadeff said. “There’s no better feeling than dunking in the Stan. That’s probably what gave us that little boost to keep going.”
The ’Bows’ first seven baskets of the second half were manufactured on dunks, layups and tips.
When the Titans collapsed their defense, that opened the way for 3s.
“When you play a team for a second time, you kind of get a feel for how they want to play, and how you can exploit them,” Beattie said of the shifting strategies. I think we had a great scout. Gib (Johnson, UH’s assistant coach) … and Brad (Davidson, the associate head coach) had a great scout to tell us what to look for and what was going to work. I think that’s the main thing.”
It also enabled the ’Bows to become more daring. Backup center Jerome Palm stole the ball from CSUF’s Zachary Visentin, drove three-quarters of the court and soared for a flush.
CSUF guard Donovan Oday, who scored 29 points in the previous meeting, was held to four first-half points on 2-for-5 shooting. He finished with 13 points, with most coming when the suspense ended.
BIG WEST MEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 10 1 .909 — 20 3
UC San Diego 8 2 .800 11
⁄2 18 4
UC Riverside 8 3 .700 2 15 8
CS Northridge 7 4 .636 3 15 7
UC Davis 6 4 .600 3 12 9
UCSB 6 5 .545 4 15 8
Hawaii 5 6 .455 5 13 9
CSU Bakersfield 4 7 .364 5 10 13
Long Beach St. 3 8 .273 7 7 16
Cal Poly 2 9 .182 8 8 15
CS Fullerton 110 .091 9 6 17
Thursday
UC San Diego 74, Hawaii 63
Cal Poly 90, Cal State Bakersfield 81
UC Irvine 80, Long Beach State 75, OT
UC Riverside 60, UC Davis 58
CS Northridge 78, UC Santa Barbara 71
Saturday
Hawaii 82, Cal State Fullerton 57
UC Irvine 73, UC Davis 66
UC Riverside 80, Cal Poly 62
Cal State Northridge 88, CS Bakersfield 62
UC Santa Barbara 85, Long Beach St. 54
Thursday
Hawaii at Cal Poly, 5 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Bakersfield
UC Riverside at UC San Diego
Cal State Fullerton at Cal State Northridge
UC Davis at Long Beach State
Saturday, Feb. 8
Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.
Cal State Northridge at Long Beach State
UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Riverside
UC San Diego at UC Irvine
HAWAII 82, CAL STATE FULLERTON 57
TITANS (6-17, 1-10 Big West)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
5 Oday 23 5-9 1-1 2-2 1-5 6 2 1 2 0 2 13
10 Robinson 30 3-11 2-9 2-2 0-4 4 2 0 0 0 0 10
22 Rudolph 30 0-2 0-0 4-6 0-1 1 1 1 1 0 0 4
24 De Luna 26 2-6 0-0 0-0 2-6 8 1 0 1 2 0 4
11 Richardson 7 0-2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
12 Visentin 18 4-7 0-0 2-5 2-1 3 1 0 2 0 0 10
1 Richard 24 2-5 0-3 4-5 0-2 2 4 2 1 1 2 8
3 Young 24 2-6 0-1 1-5 0-3 3 1 0 2 1 1 5
13 Brown 18 1-4 1-2 0-1 1-0 1 4 2 2 0 1 3
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 2-2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 200 19-52 4-17 15-26 8-24 32 16 6 13 4 6 57
Percentages 36.5 23.5 57.7
RAINBOW WARRIORS (13-9, 5-6 Big West)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
14 Rouhliadeff 26 6-11 2-3 0-0 4-7 11 2 0 0 0 0 14
2 Beattie 23 7-10 0-2 0-1 0-2 2 0 5 1 0 1 14
34 Jacobs 22 3-5 2-4 2-3 1-2 3 2 1 3 0 0 10
32 Christensen 16 1-6 0-1 0-0 2-3 5 3 2 0 1 0 2
30 Hunkin-Claytor 24 0-3 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 1 3 1 0 1 0
4 Greene 18 4-7 1-3 1-2 0-1 1 3 1 4 0 2 10
5 Nemeikša 12 2-5 1-3 3-3 1-5 6 4 0 0 1 2 8
0 Williams 11 3-7 2-6 0-0 0-2 2 2 1 2 0 0 8
20 Palm 19 2-5 0-0 3-3 4-5 9 0 0 0 0 1 7
22 Rapp 17 2-5 1-3 1-2 0-2 2 1 2 1 0 0 6
10 Robeson 4 1-2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
6 Obasohan 4 0-2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0
8 Economou 4 0-2 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 4-0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 200 31-70 10-30 10-14 16-31 47 21 16 12 2 7 82
Percentages 44.3 33.3 71.4
Halftime — Hawaii 37, Cal State Fullerton 20
Technical fouls — none. Officials — Mike Scyphers, Kirk Smith, DG Nelson. A — 5,518.