HONOLULU — With the lights brightest and the shirts whitest, the Hawaii basketball team met its moment.
After a series of bitterly disappointing close home losses against the Big West’s best, the Rainbow Warriors put it all together on a cathartic senior night with a 72-67 victory over first-place UC Irvine at a rocking Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday.
While a national audience took in the nine-point second-half comeback on ESPN2, a season-high “white-out” crowd of 8,248 was on hand to see point guard JoVon McClanahan pour in a career-high 27 points and deal a season-high seven assists. Just as essential to the outcome, freshman center Mor Seck announced himself as a future force with 14 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots in his first career start.
In terms of tickets issued, it was the program's first sellout of the 10,300-seat arena since the championship season of 2016.
“Man, it was incredible. I haven’t seen the Stan like this. It was roaring in here,” said McClanahan, who peppered the Anteaters with mid-range jumpers in the first half and got to the line repeatedly in the second. "I’m so glad everybody came out. We need that. We need Hawaii to come in here and support us. We showed on the court and we played Hawaii basketball."
Super senior Samuta Avea, who was the catalyst of the game’s decisive sequence, said, “It’s indescribable.… I couldn’t hear some of the times during the big plays.”
UH (21-9, 12-6 Big West), wearing its throwback Rainbows jerseys, simultaneously moved within a game of the conference lead and knocked nemesis Irvine (20-10, 13-5) back into a three-way pack for first with UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside with two games to play before the BWC tournament in Henderson, Nev.
Many in the stands remained to see seniors Avea, Kamaka Hepa and Juan Munoz be traditionally honored, with the bonus of a haka performed by Avea’s North Shore family. Nearly 30 of Hepa’s family members flew in from Alaska and Kauai, some sporting shirts of “Utqiagvik Warriors” from his hometown in the Arctic Circle.
After a slow start in his final home game, it was Avea, the sixth-year collegian who missed the last two seasons, who put his team ahead with dump-off assist to Seck for a two-hand flush, followed by a left-wing 3-pointer that caused the domed roof to blow off with under six minutes left.
“I’m so proud of him. To see what he’s gone through, nobody misses three years between games and hangs in there,” coach Eran Ganot said of Avea, who scored 10 on 3-for-12 shooting. “The big 3. I was so happy for him because he had a couple of good looks early and I’m just yelling out, 'Keep shooting those!'”
The 'Bows, who are 8-1 after a loss this season, improved to just 2-5 against the teams in the top five in the BWC.
Forced to make an adjustment to the starting lineup for the first time all season, Ganot summoned Seck to replace Bernardo da Silva, who was a pregame scratch due to an ankle injury he suffered in Thursday’s two-point loss to UC Riverside.
Seck, who’d been lightly used in Big West play after some promising moments in the Diamond Head Classic, responded with a career game in 29 breathless minutes that left him gasping every time he left the floor. He made his first four shots, including two dunks, and finished 7-for-11 from the field. The 7-foot-1 native of Senegal waved at the crowd a similar amount to pump them up.
“I was saying in my mind, I have to give up everything. I have to run the floor so hard. Do everything for my teammates … especially the seniors,” Seck said. “That’s why I’m here. When I wake up in the morning, I put that in my mind.”
He did it against a UCI program that is known for featuring the best big men in the conference. Seck had no points and rebounds in five minutes in an eight-point loss at Irvine on Jan. 19. He said he studied film of his performance at the Bren Center for ways to improve.
Irvine, coming off a disappointing home loss to UC San Diego in which the Anteaters gave up an uncharacteristic 99 points, seemed on track to right itself for much of the night. Instead, coach Russell Turner was still left searching for answers as he spoke on the radio and watched UH’s senior ceremony with a blank face.
“We gotta get home, regroup, and gear up for a big game against Riverside on Thursday,” Turner said. “We got dominated at UC San Diego. Tonight, when we got a lead, we were not able to make the defensive plays, rebounds we needed to make, loose ball recoveries we needed to make.”
Dawson Baker gave UCI its largest lead of nine on a 3-point hit with 14:27 to play. But freshman Harry Rouhliadeff answered with a triple and he added three free throws over the next two minutes among his 10 points off the bench to help UH get back in the game.
“Good things happen to those who are patient, more so to those who are ready,” Ganot said. “And Mor and Harry were incredible. The senior group picked them up, too, helped them out. JoVon and Mor set the tone with their physicality to start the game, their aggressiveness. I’m so proud of them for all things considered. I’m losing my voice.”
Guard DJ Davis, who connected on six 3-pointers as the backbone to his 27-point night, tied it up for the last time at 62.
McClanahan made an adjustment Saturday after shooting 2-for-10 for six points on Thursday, noting he was getting too deep in the paint on his drives. He got to the line for the go-ahead free throws and he followed up with a give to Seck for a bucket.
Davis' final hit kept the Anteaters within three in the final minute. With a three-second differential between game and shot clock, UCI went for tie-ups instead of taking a foul. It nearly succeeded on Avea in front of the UH bench. Instead, it went out of bounds and back to UH with 15.6 seconds left.
UCI then nearly tied up McClanahan, but instead a foul was called on Ofure Ujadughele and the UH guard went to the line with 10.1 seconds left and sank a pair.
Avea partially blocked Davis’ 3 out of bounds with 3.1 seconds left. After one more Irvine miss, Hepa chucked the basketball to the rafters and da Silva bear hugged Seck at midcourt.
Hepa, who arrived with the college experience of a role player but finished as a go-to scorer, scored five points and grabbed five rebounds in his Sheriff farewell.
“To this point in my life, this is one of the most memorable nights that I’ve had, from my teammates to my coaches to my family, to my nieces and nephews,” the Texas transfer said.
Munoz, a gifted shooter who transferred from Longwood, never got a chance to suit up in an official game for UH because of preseason injuries in back-to-back seasons.
"Special. Probably the best decision I made my whole college career was coming to Hawaii," Munoz said. "I think the crowd tonight was amazing. The fans have always been amazing, have always showed me love for everything I’ve been going through and that’s something that I’ll always be grateful for."
Da Silva’s pregame scratch brought to an end UH’s streak of identical starting lineups for the first 29 games of the season.
UH heads out to play at Cal State Northridge (7-23, 4-15) and UCSB (22-7, 13-5) next week, then will head straight to Las Vegas for the tournament.
Some more photos and video from the night:
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.