Rainbows fall on road; tournament hopes on the brink
Cal State Bakersfield surged to a 76-64 basketball victory over Hawaii at the Icardo Center on the CSUB campus.
A UH victory would have helped the Rainbow Warriors clinch a berth in next week’s Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nev.
But the ’Bows could not find enough creases in the Roadrunners’ 2-3 zone, contain Jemel Jones’ creative scoring, or grab timely rebounds.
“That was disappointing,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame radio interview.
Playing on their senior night, the Roadrunners moved into seventh place at 8-12 in the Big West. Now at 7-12, the ’Bows fell into an eighth-place tie with Cal Poly. The ’Bows still have a postseason chance on tie-breakers if they win at Cal State Northridge on Saturday. The Matadors won the previous meeting 83-60 in Honolulu. Another opening for UH is if Long Beach State beats Cal Poly.
The ’Bows scored the game’s first seven points and led 37-33 at the half. But the Roadrunners went on a 17-4 run for a 58-50 lead with 9:22 to play. Jones finished with 29 points on 12-for-22 shooting. Marvin McGhee III nailed four 3s and contributed 16 points.
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UH forward Gytis Nemeikas came off the bench to score 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting, with most of the shots launched from the elbow.
The ’Bows had a chance to cut into a 70-64 deficit. But Harry Rouhliadeff and Ryan Rapp missed back-to-back, 3-point attempts with 2:18 left.
CSUB’s CJ Hardy and Jones each hit two free throws to move the Roadrunners out of reach.
