The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team turned a Disneyland area town into its Happiest Place on Earth on Saturday, as Dre Bullock drained a 3-pointer as time expired to lift the Warriors to a pulsating 87-85 road victory at Cal State Fullerton.
A stunned crowd of 668 — including a small contingent of vocal UH fans — in Titan Gym watched Bullock finish with a game-high 27 points and Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson add 20 points as the Warriors improved to 21-7 overall and 13-5 in the Big West Conference, still tied with UC Irvine for first place with two games remaining. Joshua Ward scored a team-high 16 points and Landon Seaman and Jaden Henderson each added 14 points for Cal State Fullerton, which fell to 15-15 and 10-8.
Bullock’s game-winning shot capped a wild back-and-forth game that featured 15 lead changes and saw the Titans take a 79-70 lead on Josh Ward’s layup with 3:37 remaining. Harry Rouhliadeff answered with two free throws to ignite a furious 14-0 run culminating in Bullock’s pair of foul shots to put UH ahead, 84-79, with 29 seconds left.
But Kiwane Garris, Jr. converted a three-point play to close it to 84-82 eight seconds later, and then a steal by Christian Williams eventually led to a fadeaway 3 by Garris from the left corner to give Cal State Fullerton an 85-84 lead with nine ticks on the clock.
After receiving the ensuing inbounds pass, Bullock dribbled toward halfcourt, momentarily lost the ball before quickly retrieving it and passing to Hunter Erickson, who was covered heavily and drove toward the right elbow and dished to Bullock who was beyond the top of the key.
Bullock’s shot barely beat the horn and nestled into the net as time expired.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame radio interview on ESPN Honolulu. “We put on the (white)board, ’79-70, down nine, three and half (minutes) with the ball.’ There are going to be a lot of possessions in this game, and we have been good offensively. We missed some open shots, but we were good offensively. We were not good defensively, and we said if we’re not going to start getting some stops …
“But that was as well as we could have executed for three minutes. And what a huge by Dre … first of all, he lost the ball and made a winning play to get it back. And then Hunter got in the paint and kicked it out … I’m really happy for our team, and really happy for our fans. What a special moment.”
Big West Conference Standings
*HAWAI’I 14-5
*UC Irvine 14-5
*UC San Diego 11-7
*UC Santa Barbara 11-7
*Cal State Northridge 11-7
*UC Davis 10-8
*Cal State Fullerton 10-8
*Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 9-9
Long Beach State 5-13
UC Riverside 5-14
Cal State Bakersfield 2-16
*Clinched Big West Conference Tournament berth March 11-14 in Henderson, Nev.