Laying it all on the free throw line, Hawai’i made a stunning 36 of 38 attempts (94.7 percent) Saturday afternoon en route to an impressive 95-86 victory at Cal State Fullerton in Big West Conference men’s basketball action.
A sparse matinee crowd of 513 in Titan Gym watched Gytis Nemeiksa score a team-high 20 points — including 10-of-11 free throw shooting — and grab eight rebounds and Tanner Christensen add 19 points and seven boards as the Warriors completed a road sweep to improve to 11-5 overall and 3-2 in league play. Donovan Oday scored a game-high 29 points and Zion Richardson added 15 points off the bench for Fullerton, which dropped its fourth straight game to fall to 5-13, 0-6.
UH never trailed and held the lead for 38 minutes, 28 seconds of game time, but also never led by more than 10 points as the Titans managed to stay within striking distance. The Warriors led, 40-36, at halftime but Cal State Fullerton closed it to 64-62 on Keith Richard’s driving layup near the midway point of the second half.
Hawai’i finally got some separation later, after Christensen’s layup ignited a 15-8 run that extended the lead to 85-75 on Nemeiksa’s free throw with 3:23 remaining in the game. The Titans could not get closer than six points the rest of the way.
“We were 26 of 27 (on free throws) in the second half, we probably made our last 10, with several different guys,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame radio interview. “Within the last three minutes, we took care of it, we had to make our free throws and we did at the highest level you could — we made every single one. And that’s a big step for us.”
UH shot 61.4 percent (27 of 44) from the field, despite going 1 for 7 from 3-point range in the second half. The Warriors held Cal State Fullerton to 22.2 percent shooting (4 for 18) from beyond the arc, including 2 for 10 in the first half.
The Titans made 10 steals and scored 26 points off of turnovers, but Hawai’i again won the rebounding battle, 32 to 20.
“These (games) are hard, it’s a very humbling game,” Ganot said. “(The Titans) were fighting. Road win, road sweep — I’m very happy for our guys in the locker room. There’s a lot of things we can get better at, but we’re going to enjoy it. We’ll watch the film, see where we were exposed, and then we’ll attack it.
“But life is short if you don’t enjoy these, and I’m happy for our guys to hang in there.”
Big West Conference Standings
UC Irvine 5-0
UC San Diego 4-1
UC Santa Barbara 3-2
HAWAI’I 3-2
UC Riverside 3-2
Long Beach State 3-2
Cal State Northridge 3-3
UC Davis 3-3
Cal State Bakersfield 3-3
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-6
Cal State Fullerton 0-6