The Hawaii men’s basketball team canceled out one of its better wins of the year with one of its worst defeats.
Big West leader UC Irvine blitzed the Rainbow Warriors from the outset of Saturday’s contest in Irvine, California, and punished them at their weakest point – right around the basket – in a 93-68 rout that served as rope grease for UH’s tentative climb up the standings.
UH (12-11, 4-7 BWC) was on an uncommon upswing with Thursday’s eight-point win at Cal State Fullerton, but then, it gave up its most points of the season, lost by the widest margin, yielded a staggering 62 points in the paint and allowed 61.4% shooting as UCI easily earned the home-and-home season sweep.
The ‘Bows dropped back into a tie for eighth place with nine games to play before the Big West tournament, for which they are right on the fringes of qualification.
“Obviously I think that (defending the interior) was a challenge for us, compounded by not having one of our guys (Mor Seck) and compounded by some silly fouls,” UH coach Eran Ganot told Spectrum News in a postgame phone interview. “Sometimes you’ll get some fouls by playing right, but we had a lot of lapses early that put a lot of our frontcourt in foul trouble as well. They took it to us on the offensive boards, in the paint, and even on the perimeter getting into the paint.”
UCI (17-6, 10-1) improved to 9-0 at the Bren Events Center this season and moved into sole possession of first place.
Anteaters 7-foot-1 center Bent Leuchten won an opening tip for the first time this season, which seemed to give the big man from Germany some pep in his step. UCI jumped out to a 7-0 lead in a minute of play and got Rainbow Warrior center Bernardo da Silva into foul trouble nearly as quickly; da Silva picked up his third foul before halftime, when Russell Turner’s Anteaters led by 17.
“He beat us down the floor several times to start the game,” Ganot said of Leuchten, who had 15 points in 16 minutes. “That’s where we got two of our silly fouls. It’s just unacceptable. It’s something that we can’t afford to allow to happen.”
UCI’s backup big man Carter Welling scored a season-high 14 on just five shots and grabbed seven rebounds in 14 minutes. He shot 9-for-10 in the season’s two matchups.
Point guard Pierre Crockrell II, the driving force of the Anteaters’ 10-point win in Honolulu last month, had 12 points and seven assists – and even made a 3-pointer, the first of the season for the mid-range maestro.
Freshman guard Derin Saran met little resistance on his forays to the cup as the native of Turkey put in 12 on 5-for-6 shooting.
UCI outscored UH 20-0 on fast-break points despite only forcing eight UH turnovers.
UH point guard Juan Munoz, who sat the last seven minutes at Fullerton after coming down gingerly from a shot attempt, got the start but was pulled early in both halves as he was victimized multiple times on the perimeter by the Anteaters’ driving guards.
Ganot said Munoz was “basically normal” and pulled him in favor of former starter JoVon McClanahan because “that’s the way the game was going.”
McClanahan was UH’s most reliable option for stretches as the senior co-captain scored 16 points with five assists. Ganot said he was reasonably pleased with his team's offense in the second half as it cut a 25-point deficit to 14 with under eight minutes to go before UCI extended it again.
Senior shooting guard Noel Coleman, who eclipsed 1,100 points with UH with 21 in Thursday’s eight-point win at Cal State Fullerton, was tentative against the Anteaters for the second time this season, as the team’s leading scorer recorded his second zero-point outing against UCI, and third of 2023-24. He was 0-for-5 from the field in 25 minutes.
Da Silva led UH with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Ryan Rapp came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points.
There is little let-up for the ‘Bows in their upcoming two-game home week, as regular-season contenders UC San Diego (15-8, 9-2) and UC Davis (14-8, 9-2) come to town on Thursday and Saturday.
“We’re trying to work our way back into this thing and you gotta get some of these,” Ganot said. “So, exposed in areas. We gotta travel home safely and well and go into a good week of practice with two more challenging games.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
