HONOLULU — Welcome to Division I basketball, UC San Diego.
The Hawaii men’s basketball team completed a resurgent week of play with a rout of first-time visitor UCSD, 79-56, on Saturday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The shorthanded Tritons, in their second year as a transitional D-I team, struggled against UH’s larger front line and headed back to the Mainland with plenty to think about for future matchups, including the fact they were nearly doubled up on the backboards, 41-21.
“Not my favorite trip to Hawaii ever, but I thought (Hawaii) played really well,” UCSD coach Eric Olen said. “It’s pick your poison with them and they kind of got everything going there … they’re a pretty complete team in terms of inside-outside.”
The crowd of 1,695 (3,376 tickets issued) witnessed UH (7-5 overall) follow up Thursday’s surprising 72-56 runaway from perennial contender UC Irvine with similar two-way focus in a game that did not count in the Big West standings. The ‘Bows remained at 2-0 (games against UCSD count toward overall record only until the Tritons finish their four-year transition period) heading into next week’s road trip at Cal Poly and Cal State Bakersfield.
Forward Jerome Desrosiers recorded his third straight double-double — the first UH player to do so since Christian Standhardinger in 2014-15 — during UH’s three-game winning streak with season highs of 18 points and 13 rebounds. Center Bernardo da Silva added 10 points and seven boards.
“They were switched a lot (on defense), so we threw the ball inside every opportunity we could and we made them pay,” Desrosiers said.
UH opened up a double-digit lead in the early going and would not relinquish it. The lead swelled to 41-18 at halftime — UH's largest intermission advantage of the season — and UCSD dropped to 8-8 overall with its third straight loss, all on the road.
Wing Junior Madut contributed 15 points on a night that top scorer Noel Coleman didn’t have his shot (3-for-10, 0-for-5 on 3-pointers), and walk-on Zoar Nedd was a strong bench contributor for the second time in three games with eight points.
UH still managed to bury nine 3s without a trey from Coleman, who entered the night No. 2 individually in NCAA 3-point percentage at better than 52%.
“Very pleased to continue to see the sharing of the ball, everybody contribute,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Great to see guys who haven’t played as much get on the floor there at the end. I thought our bench was tremendous. … JoVon (McClanahan), Zoar, gave us a huge lift. (Amoro) Lado, Beon (Riley), and that’s great to see, because we’re going to need that moving forward.”
UH and UCSD were to meet twice in Honolulu last year, but that trip was canceled amid pandemic concerns on the Tritons’ part.
The Tritons only brought 10 players this time; nine saw action.
“We had some issues in our program relative to COVID that changed a lot of our travel plans,” Olen said. “We weren’t able to have the ideal travel, but we’re excited to have the opportunity to compete.”
UCSD’s top option, forward Toni Rocak, tried to bedazzle the ‘Bows with a repertoire of up-fakes, pivots and step-throughs. He struggled early to finish his shots after putting on series of moves, though he finished with 20 points on 9-for-18 shooting.
“We have a similar game style,” Desrosiers said of Rocak. “Not as quick down the court, but we get in the paint and try to get any advantage we can. It felt a little bit like guarding myself, which was really fun.”
The lead grew to as many as 28 points before the Tritons scored the game’s last seven. UH, surprisingly, did it without making a free throw; it attempted just one shot at the line.