HENDERSON, Nev. — The wait is over and the weight has been lifted.
The Hawaii men’s basketball survived a tense, back-and-forth duel with UC Riverside and ended its run of futility in Big West tournament quarterfinals with a 68-67 win over the Highlanders on Thursday night at Dollar Loan Center.
UH (17-10), the third seed that limped into the tournament without its leading scorer, earned the right to do it again in the late time slot Friday night (6:30 p.m. Hawaii time) against second-seeded Cal State Fullerton.
Eran Ganot’s program entered the night having lost four straight quarterfinal games going back to 2017, the year after Ganot came in and UH won it all in the Big West, and even experienced its first NCAA Tournament win.
Among that stretch were gut-wrenching, one-possession losses in 2018 and 2019.
“We felt that this group would make the jump this year, and then obviously we lost three players for the year, a couple guys for six weeks each, and they still made the jump,” Ganot said. “That was going into this. The next step was to break through in this event. We’ve had some close losses. We’ve been right there. But that’s the game – it’s very humbling.
“I’m really happy for them. I’m really happy for all the guys who’ve worn our uniform and been on the other side of it.”
A back-and-forth second half between UH and UCR fittingly gave both teams a chance to win in the game’s final moments.
When Junior Madut missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw with 5.2 seconds left, Riverside had an opportunity at a 15th and final lead change. The Highlanders’ top offensive threat, guard Zyon Pullin, dribbled upcourt with a full head of steam. When Pullin got to the 3-point line, he dumped it off to forward Wil Tattersall, who’d struggled shooting all night but had a history of late-game heroics for UCR.
UH forward Jerome Desrosiers was a demon on the offensive glass, snatching five among his 12 boards to pair with 14 points for his fifth double-double of the season. His final act was just as important as he jumped high to contest Tattersall’s top-arc 3-pointer as time expired. Tattersall had to adjust the shot and the ball caromed off the glass without drawing iron.
The final possession reminded Desrosiers of the shot Villanova’s Kris Jenkins made to win the national championship over North Carolina in 2016.
“It was exactly it. I saw (Tattersall) come back,” Desrosiers said. “I think he was shooting 50% in conference. So I just jumped as high as I could.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t completely the Villanova play,” Ganot quipped.
The Rainbows avenged a quarterfinal loss to the Highlanders last season and a defeat in the teams' only regular-season meeting of 2021-22.
“They have a good DNA,” Ganot said of UCR’s program. “This was going to be a tough game. I think both teams knew it could go either way. You coach long enough, play long enough, you’re going to be on both sides of it.”
Madut scored 17 and played point guard for an ineffective JoVon McClanahan down the stretch. Backups Amoro Lado and Mate Colina provided 21 combined points off the bench, with Lado tying his season high of 12.
Ganot and his players immediately went to clap in appreciation to the roughly 300 UH fans in attendance that made it sound and feel like a home game in the greater Las Vegas area.
I’m Filipino, so I’m very aware they call this the Ninth Island,” Magpayo said. “But you know what, our guys perform really well in those environments. … They enjoy this atmosphere or any kind of national stage or road game. I didn’t have to worry about motivating them.
“But yeah, it definitely felt like a road game. Credit to the Hawaii fans.”
UCR (16-12) has a strong core projected to return under Magpayo, the second-year head coach who came one win short of matching the school’s Division I season record.
The Highlanders’ damage came almost entirely from the wings, with Pullin, Flynn Cameron and Dominick Pickett combining for 53 points on 18-for-35 shooting, including 9-for-14 on 3s. But UH clamped down defensively after halftime, allowing just 38.2% shooting compared to its own 53.8% after intermission. It did an especially good job on 7-foot-1 center Callum McRae, who was held to 2-for-9 shooting, with Bernardo da Silva, Colina and Desrosiers taking turns on him.
UH’s effort on the glass was key, as it finished plus-14 (41-27) in rebounds, including 13-5 on the offensive end. That differential yielded an advantage of 18-5 in second-chance points.
Da Silva grabbed nine boards and Madut eight.
“I thought the story of the game was their offensive rebounds … and second-chance points,” Magpayo said. “It felt like every time we were able to make them miss, they were able to get on the glass against us.”
Rebounding could be a key statistic in Friday’s battle with the Fullerton Titans (19-10), with whom UH won the teams’ only meeting of the season, 72-55 in Honolulu on Feb. 12. CSUF’s dynamo of an undersized big man, E.J. Anosike, was held to a season-low four points and four rebounds in that one.
On Thursday, Anosike, an All-Big West first-teamer, rumbled for 16 points and a season-high 20 rebounds in a 73-55 rout of UC Davis.
“It’s a new season. We’re 0-0 now,” Anosike said of the semifinal matchup with UH. “We’re going to put our best foot forward, go out there and compete. May the best man win. … We’re going to leave it all out there. It’s the conference tournament. Anything can happen. It’s March. Now it’s time for the madness.”
At the outset of Thursday’s nightcap, the Rainbow Warriors appeared to be on their way to making it five lost quarterfinals in a row. They struggled to manufacture offense in the halfcourt and hoisted a number of tough shots late in the shot clock.
UH rallied from an early 10-point hole and clawed to within a point at halftime thanks in large part to consecutive 3s by Lado and Madut. Madut stepped back for a banked 3 as the horn sounded. He turned to the fans and smiled as he jogged back to the UH bench.
“I think it was a good shot for our team and for me, just confidence-wise, because I was missing a lot of shots,” Madut said. “My teammates had confidence in me, telling me to keep shooting. I was just glad that one went down at the right time.”
It was clear the second half was headed for a dramatic finish as the teams swapped the lead repeatedly.
Madut swooped in for a score and Desrosiers followed with a putback on UH’s next possession for a 66-63 lead with 2:14 left.
Tattersall responded with his first field goal of the game, an inside bucket.
Pullin missed on an elbow stepback with under a minute left. UH called timeout with 37.7 seconds to go.
Madut, who took over point guard duties mid-game, drove in and drew a foul on McRae with 16.6 seconds left. He sank both foul shots.
UH fouled Pickett in a 1-and-1 situation with six seconds left. He made both for the final margin preceding Madut’s potentially crucial miss at the line.
Juan Munoz, one of the ‘Bows knocked out for the season with an injury, was among those leading cheers on the UH bench. He wore the No. 4 jersey of Noel Coleman, UH’s all-conference second-teamer and the team’s leading scorer who watched remotely while recovering from a facial injury.
Follow along with on-site reporter Brian McInnis at this week’s Big West action in Henderson.