HONOLULU — In a crucial Big West contest on Thursday night in the Stan Sheriff Center, one team broke through and one broke down.
In a familiar script, the Hawaii men’s basketball team was not up to the task of fending off a fellow conference contender in its home building. UC Riverside rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to stun the Rainbow Warriors, 54-52, to attain the first 20-win season in the program’s Division I history.
UH (20-9, 11-6 Big West) squandered a prime opportunity to make a move in the standings; first-place UC Irvine lost at home earlier in the night. The Rainbow Warriors could’ve put themselves in a position to draw even with the Anteaters on Saturday’s senior night.
“We had a moment where we could’ve made our next step, and we did not,” lamented UH coach Eran Ganot.
It’s happened a few times against the league's better teams. On Feb. 11, Cal State Fullerton emerged from the SSC with a 52-51 victory. On Jan. 26, UC Santa Barbara escaped 65-64.
UH had multiple opportunities to be the team that escaped on Thursday. It rallied from a late six-point deficit to give itself a chance in front of the crowd of 3,586 (4,957 tickets issued).
JoVon McClanahan’s driving layup to tie was swatted out of bounds by Zyon Pullin with 1.5 seconds left, but Kamaka Hepa was fouled by Will Tattersall after receiving the ball on the right block on the inbounds pass.
Hepa missed the front end of the 1-and-1 and UH dropped to 1-5 against the other teams that presently constitute the top five of the BWC standings.
“I’m completely disappointed, not with my team, but with myself,” said Hepa, who scored 14 points and grabbed right rebounds. “But I don’t want to make it about me so I think we just need to go practice tomorrow and figure it out. We got one game left here and let’s try to go get that one.”
Saturday’s ESPN2-televised 5 p.m. contest against Irvine could be the Rainbow Warriors’ last, best chance to rewrite the contender-in-name-only narrative heading into the crucible of the Big West tournament.
By winning in Honolulu for the fifth time in the last six meetings here, UCR (20-10, 13-5) moved into sole possession of second place.
Although UH could not replicate its first-half lockdown of UCR that resulted in just 14 points and 19.4% shooting by the Highlanders, the ‘Bows still led by 10 with 11:54 to play.
That’s when Pullin went into game-breaker mode with a personal 12-0 run.
“The game (turned) when we were up 10,” Ganot said. “It’s been a common theme. … Tonight again, lack of discipline. And lack of unity, which is very unlike us. So, we learn the hard way.”
Center Bernardo da Silva scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half and had six rebounds and five turnovers. Guard Noel Coleman scored 10 with two blocked shots. Wing Samuta Avea had eight boards but was held to two points and McClanahan shot 2-for-10 for six points and four assists.
Pullin threw his team on his back in the second half with 18 of his 24 points, including that run of five straight field goals. Among them was a steal for a layup, plus the foul, then a 3-pointer when UH failed to box out on his free-throw miss. At that point, he was in a rhythm and scored over the top of McClanahan.
“They have a great fan base behind them and we knew it was going to be tough to win here, going back to my freshman year,” Pullin said. “It was a tough win. But we wanted to come out with our 20th win and we were able to execute down the stretch.”
Ganot said his team tried to go to traps against Pullin, but he quickly solved them, unlike the teams' meeting in Riverside won by UH. By the time the taller Coleman was switched onto him for the final possessions Thursday, the damage was done.
For UCR, Thursday was the latest example of the program’s improbable rally from the cusp of elimination in 2021. Coach Mike Magpayo — who comes from an extended version of the same Randy Bennett coaching tree as Ganot — said that in the moment he forgot that it was an unprecedented program benchmark.
“Guys like Zyon Pullin built this program from the ground up. He was here when I was an assistant four years ago,” Magpayo said. “And a lot of these guys, Flynn Cameron, Will Tattersall, who’ve been here for the last three, four years, and built this thing into what it is today. It’s pretty special and a tribute to these guys and their buy-in and the program.”
UH won the rebounding battle against another team with a proclivity for grind-it-out victories, but not when it mattered. Forward Lachlan Olbrich had four of his team’s 11 offensive rebounds, which came in some key moments.
UCR led by six with 3:23 left. It was UH’s turn to rally; it got within 51-50 on Coleman’s 3 and Hepa’s layup.
Will Tattersall and Bernardo da Silva traded baskets.
Coleman blocked the UCR guard on a drive in the final minute and UH secured the rebound.
Hepa got a clear top-arc look at a 3 coming out of a timeout, but he was off the mark. UH took a foul on Olbrich, who made one of two for a two-point lead.
UH, out of timeouts, got the ball in the hands of McClanahan. He drove the lane, but the taller Pullin anticipated the shot and swatted him from behind, out of bounds.
UH had one more chance with 1.5 seconds left. Hepa drew a foul on Tattersall after receiving the ball on the right block to set up a nail-biting opportunity to tie.
Hepa’s front end of the 1-and-1 clanked off the back iron and UCR secured the rebound.
UH players wore patches on their jerseys bearing the names of a Black person they idolized as part of Black History Month, such as President Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., and Tony “Bones” Davis, the program’s first Black scholarship player who owns the program’s single-game scoring record of 45 against Cal State Los Angeles.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.