As of Thursday morning, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team was thankfully a safe distance from the nearest wildfire, but the Warriors still have their own business to attend to in the evening with a key Big West Conference game at UC Riverside.
Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. Hawai’i time and the game will be shown on livestream via ESPN+ and broadcast live on radio via ESPN Honolulu 1420AM.
The Warriors are 9-5 overall and 1-2 in league play, with the lone Big West victory coming at home last Saturday versus Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. UC Riverside (10-6, 3-1) is coming off an 81-57 loss at UC Irvine.
The Highlanders are 6-0 at home this season, while UH is 0-2 on the road. Despite that fact, the Warriors are feeling confident entering UCR’s Student Recreation Center.
“As a group, just by eating together and staying together, I think everyone jells a lot more,” said sophomore co-captain Tom Beattie, a combo guard who came off the bench to score 15 points, grab three rebounds and dish out two assists. “I think we’re super confident on this road trip, being a tighter group.”
At the top of the list of challenges is containing Highlanders point guard Barrington Hargress, who scored 20 points in the loss at UC Irvine and is averaging 19.4 points, 4.4 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.
“He’s coming off a (Big West) Freshman of the Year campaign, and you’ve seen improvement,” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “The confidence has always been there in late-game situations, he’s tough, he gets to the rim, he’s a high assist-to-turnover ratio guy at a really important position. What we’ve tried to do over the years is, you’re not going to limit them, but can you make him work on both ends and shoot a poor percentage?
“That’s the task — easier said than done — but it’s a team cover, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Shooting guard Ryan Rapp, Hawai’i’s other co-captain, said Hargress is just one of several Highlanders the Warriors will have to contain.
“They have a really good point guard in Hargress, he’s kind of the head of the snake and is really confident right now,” Rapp said. “We’ve got to make sure we handle him, but they also have really good other players who play their role really well. It’s good that we have (assistant coach) Rob (Jones) who was at Riverside a couple years beforehand, so he helps us out with the scout.
“They have a good motion (offense), they flow well, so it will be a good challenge for us.”
Big West Conference Standings
UC San Diego 3-0
UC Irvine 3-0
Cal State Northridge 3-1
UC Riverside 3-1
Cal State Bakersfield 2-2
Long Beach State 2-2
UC Davis 2-2
UC Santa Barbara 1-2
HAWAI’I 1-2
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-4
Cal State Fullerton 0-4