HONOLULU — Another exceptional defensive effort afforded the Hawaii men’s basketball team the opportunity for an especially special Christmas.
The Rainbow Warriors applied the clamps on Washington State, 62-51, on Friday night to advance to the program’s first final in the 13 editions of its nationally televised holiday tournament, the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
They meet tournament upstart SMU (5-7) in the 3:30 p.m. championship on Sunday.
“I was saying in the locker room, man, I’ve had so many Christmases here over the last couple of years,” said sixth-year senior Samuta Avea, who scored 15 of his game-high 19 points in the second half to key the hosts’ separation in front of 3,109 at SimpliFi Arena. “This is going to be my favorite one. I’m trying to make it really memorable.”
UH coach Eran Ganot found a way to get past a friend and mentor in WSU coach Kyle Smith, who hails from the same Randy Bennett coaching tree at Saint Mary’s.
Ganot said he did everything he could not to look down the sideline at his counterpart for a Pac-12 team that emphasizes several of the same principles.
“It’s a program that we have incredible respect for, to do it against them,” Ganot said. “Both programs are saying defend, rebound, take care of the ball. You could see the slugfest in the first half. We were fortunate to separate late, but we defended as well as we have all year, in a year we’ve been defending well.”
While UH (8-3) heated up in the second half, shooting 13-for-23, WSU (5-7) was held to the low 30s in shooting percentage the whole way. The Cougars’ top scorer, TJ Bamba, needed 18 shots to score 19 points. Its top big man, Mouhamed Gueye, was minimized by game-long foul trouble. And third option Justin Powell was blanked on seven shots.
UH had been 0-4 in Diamond Head semifinal games.
Point guard JoVon McClanahan helped right that wrong with a series of clutch mid-range buckets as the senior posted 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and two turnovers. Building off a career-high 17 in a first-round win over Pepperdine on Thursday, it was his finest 48 hours in a UH uniform.
“I’ve played at a high level before, so I know where I needed to be and I know what I needed to do for our team to be a great team, and I had to pick up my level of play,” McClanahan said. “So that was just my thing, knowing everybody has to do their job … 1 through 15.”
Center Mor Seck did his part in the first half with six rebounds in six minutes off the bench. The 7-foot-1 freshman from Senegal was celebrated by the crowd and his teammates after the most meaningful action of his young career.
“He’s physical down there, he gave us a boost just being physical with their big and rebounding the ball, setting good screens, and even when we were driving he was sealing off,” McClanahan said. “Just playing good basketball.”
Ganot said guard Noel Coleman (13 points) and forward Kamaka Hepa, who carried the scoring load Thursday, played their roles well in quieter games and helped space the floor for Avea and McClanahan.
In a matchup of two teams with plenty of crossover of staff and players, it was a stalemate early – it was 24-23 UH at halftime – and a battle largely decided within the arcs as the teams chased each other off the 3-point line.
Avea’s lob jam on a baseline inbounds pass from McClanahan broke the stalemate with 11:40 left. It kicked off a 24-9 UH run, and after overcoming a few shaky moments against the Cougars’ desperation fullcourt pressure, the ‘Bows could sense their first final.
He shook off a missed jam in the opening minutes that lead to a Bamba leak-out dunk at the other end.
“Me and Von, we have a couple (alley-oops) so far, so when we catch eye contact, we know what we want,” Avea said.
Backup forward Beon Riley, who played down the stretch to help counter the Cougars’ press, capped it off with a corner 3-pointer.
Smith, a two-time finalist for the head hoops job in Manoa, tipped his cap to Ganot and UH, telling Spectrum News, “We got our teeth kicked in tonight.”
He noted McClanahan, a standout junior college scorer, chose UH over WSU going into Smith’s first year on the Palouse and that the Bay Area native supplied the ‘Bows with toughness and poise.
UH repeated its strong performance against Pepperdine in preventing 3-point damage. The Cougars were held to 3-for-13 from long range; Jabe Mullins, a 54% 3-point shooter who had the game-winner for WSU in its opening-round win over George Washington, was a nonfactor.
“They’re one of the best in the country,” Smith said. “We run people off the 3. They probably run people even more so. … We knew that going in. They wiped us out, so we had to score on them in the post and they did a good job defending us in there and around the rim.”
Hawaii and WSU hadn’t played since the 1991 Rainbow Classic, a 63-61 WSU win. Until Friday, UH’s only win to date over the Cougars was in Pullman in 1953.
UH and SMU are former Western Athletic Conference opponents that last played in 2005, before the Mustangs left for Conference USA, and more recently the American Athletic Conference.
SMU, a large team with athleticism at all positions, turned around its early season struggles with notable wins in Honolulu over Iona and Utah State. It is the second team in the history of the Diamond Head Classic to reach the final with a losing record.
Ganot, who prides himself on championing the history of the program, put the opportunity into context at the end of his postgame interview.
“I expect and hope that the place is rocking as much as it ever has on Christmas Day. I think our guys deserve it, I think this venue deserves it, I think this tournament deserves it, I think our state deserves it, I think our fans deserve it. We’re going to enjoy this one for a sec and get back to work so we can make everybody proud.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.