UH hoops defeat Cal Poly for fourth Big West road win

Hawaii beat Cal Poly’s desperate press one last time. Stefan Jankovic saw Aaron Valdes streaking toward the basket from the corner and obliged with a lob that Valdes threw down, plus the foul.

That play with 30 seconds left was the exclamation point on the Rainbow Warriors’ 75-60 victory at Mott Athletics Center on Saturday night, which sent UH into uncharted territory on the mainland.

In sweeping a second straight Big West road trip, it marked the first time UH (18-3, 7-1 BWC) won its first four conference road games.

“I saved (that fact) ’til right before the game,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame phone interview from San Luis Obispo, Calif. “This group loves the challenge. You’re always trying to have breakthroughs for this team and for this program. It’s hard to do. … To do something that hadn’t been done, ever. It’s important to have those.”

UH’s record through eight conference games is tied for another program best last earned during the NCAA Tournament season of 2001-02.

By doing so, the Rainbows moved into a first-place tie with idle UC Irvine heading into Thursday’s showdown between the teams at the Stan Sheriff Center.

They did it by shooting 52 percent, including 60.9 percent in a 47-point second half, while Cal Poly (8-14, 2-7) committed just six turnovers but was held to 33.3 percent shooting.

Jankovic had 19 points and nine rebounds and Valdes scored 14. Point guard Roderick Bobbitt overcame a slow start — he had five quick turnovers — to score 12 of his 15 points and dish four of his six assists in the second half.

David Nwaba, Cal Poly’s leading scorer, rebounder and assist man, was held to four points, five rebounds and a single assist in 25 minutes off the bench while being defended primarily by Valdes. Guard Reese Morgan led the Mustangs with 10 points.

Coupled with a 13-point win over Poly at the Sheriff on Jan. 6, UH earned a home-and-home sweep of the Mustangs for the first time since joining the Big West in 2012. UH had never before swept the Central California coast road swing through UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly.

A capacity crowd at the 3,000-seat Mott watched a back-and-forth first half, but then UH kicked off the second half with a 9-0 run and never let up.

“Just continue to be the aggressor,” Ganot said. “We’re not as good when we’re on our heels. Just proud, we were out of sorts a little bit, but our attitudes were never out of sorts. Our composure was good.”

Bobbitt went out with two fouls with 8:31 left in the first half in favor of reserve Niko Filipovich. Filipovich played well, contributing five points in the period and seven for the game.

“We turned the ball over early, which hurt us,” Ganot said. “But Niko gave us a huge lift. On the road, you need a collective effort. You need everybody to contribute. And that’s what happened, really, this week.”

Rebounding was also big; UH won it by five. It was a point of emphasis coming off a minus-19 effort in a home loss to Long Beach State last week.

Both teams had chances to claim the lead going into halftime, but they could not connect on jump shots and remained knotted at 28.

Bobbitt and Valdes opened the second half with 3-pointers for a six-point lead, and Jankovic followed with a three-point play in transition on a feed from Mike Thomas.

Quincy Smith missed two at the line sandwiched by Mustangs baskets, cutting the deficit to two. Bobbitt sank his third 3 of the game and center Stefan Jovanovic sank a deep 2 to extend the lead again.

Valdes blocked Cal Poly’s Josh Martin and Sai Tummala converted a top-arc 3-pointer at the other end for a 10-point lead, the biggest of the game to that point with 11 minutes left.

Tummala followed with a leak-out dunk, then two free throws to cap a 9-0 run for a 51-37 UH lead.

Cal Poly responded with an 8-0 run fueled by UH turnovers, ended by two 1-and-1 free throws by Smith with 7:22 to go.

Jankovic followed with a long 3-pointer to build the lead back to double digits.

The big man appeared to hurt his right ankle getting fouled underneath the basket, but shook it off and made two free throws with four minutes left for a 12-point advantage.

Bobbitt converted two at the line with 2:33 left, and followed with a layup to beat the Mustangs’ pressure to keep it a 12-point game.

Cal Poly’s Morgan got a 3 to roll in with under two minutes left to cut it to nine, but Mike Thomas made two free throws and leaked out for a dunk after a Poly miss to help ice it.

Valdes’ explosive play finished it off.

“Just really proud of them,” Ganot said.

BIG WEST MEN

Wednesday

UC Irvine 78, Cal Poly 72, OT

CSUN 73, UC Riverside 71

Thursday

Hawaii 76, UC Santa Barbara 64 CS Fullerton 61, UC Davis 57

Saturday

Hawaii 75, Cal Poly 60

Long Beach State 81, CSUN 76

UC Santa Barbara 81, Cal State

Fullerton 68

UC Davis 50, UC Riverside 49

HAWAII 75, CAL POLY 60

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 28, Cal Poly 28

3-point goals — Hawaii 6-17 (Bobbitt 3-5, Tummala 1-2, Jankovic 1-4, Valdes 1-5, Filipovich 0-1). Cal Poly 8-28 (Meikle 2-5, Morgan 2-5, Shipley 2-5, Shead 1-3, Sutlive 1-8, Martin 0-1, Nwaba 0-1). Steals — Hawaii 4 (Bobbitt 2, Smith 2). Cal Poly 8 (Meikle 2, Shead 2, Nwaba 2, Martin, Morgan). Blocked shots — Hawaii 6 (Valdes 3, Thomas 2, Bobbitt). Cal Poly 3 (Nwaba, Shipley, Sutlive). Turnovers — Hawaii 13 (Bobbitt 5, Smith 2, Filipovich 2, Team 2, Thomas, Jovanovic). Cal Poly 6 (Shipley 3, Nwaba 2, Bennett). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Deron White, Tom Nally, Andy Cohn. A— 3.032.