Finding its shooting touch again over 2,500 miles from home, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team torched the nets at Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday and won, 78-67, for its first Big West Conference road victory of the season.
A crowd of 1,129 at Icardo Center watched point guard JoVon McClanahan score 19 points and dish out four assists as the Warriors snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 9-5 overall, 1-1 in league play. Dalph Panopio scored a game-high 23 points off the bench to lead the Roadrunners, who fell to 5-9 and 0-3.
UH shot a blistering 61.5 percent (16 of 26) in the first half, including 5 of 11 marksmanship (45.5 percent) from 3-point range en route to a stunning 41-23 lead at intermission. CSU Bakersfield made several runs in the second half but could not get closer than 11 points.
Bernardo da Silva and Justin McKoy each scored 18 points — with da Silva grabbing eight rebounds — and Noel Coleman added 11 points and six boards for the Warriors.
“It’s always been tough here, really proud of our guys to respond,” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “This (Bakersfield) team is one of the more physical teams in the league, and we won the boards by 12 on the road, I think that was a big factor. The way we started out the game and finished the first half … I’m very happy for that locker room right now, they’ve been really staying together.”
The Warriors used a 9-2 run to lead 12-7 just over four minutes into the game, then put together another 9-2 run to stretch it to 21-11 after freshman Tom Beattie’s 3-pointer nine minutes in.
After Panopio drained a 3 to close the Roadrunners to 27-20 with just under five minutes remaining in the half, McClanahan answered with a pull-up mid-range jumper to ignite a torrid 14-3 run to put UH ahead 41-23 at the break.
CSU Bakersfield applied full-court pressure in the second half, and it worked to close the gap to 11 points a few times, but not quite enough to get within striking distance. At one point, the Warriors actually increased the lead to 56-33 after da Silva’s slam dunk with 14:30 left.
“(The Roadrunners) do a good job, they pressure people and they force turnovers,” Ganot said. “To end the first half and for most of the second, until late, we did a good job. But we have room to grow.”
UH now heads back to the Los Angeles area for Saturday’s game at Cal State Northridge.
“We’ll shift gears quick,” Ganot said. “But I can’t tell you how happy I am for them in the locker room right now. We’ll enjoy it, and get back to work.”
BIG WEST STANDINGS
- UC Irvine (3-0)
- UC Davis (3-0)
- Cal State Northridge (2-0)
- UC San Diego (2-0)
- Long Beach State (2-1)
- HAWAI’I (1-1)
- Cal State Fullerton (1-2)
- UC Riverside (1-2)
- UC Santa Barbara (0-3)
- Cal State Bakersfield (0-3)
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (0-3)