In saying “goodbye” to UC Riverside’s season, Hawai’i earned a rare “double-bye” in next week’s Big West Conference by shooting past the visiting Highlanders, 93-74.
A supportive and appreciative crowd of 3,440 in BankOh Arena in the Stan Sheriff Center watched Gytis Nmeiksa score a team-high 19 points, grab five rebounds with two assists and two steals as the Warriors improved to 22-7 overall and 14-5 in league play, tied for first place with UC Irvine. Andrew Henderson scored a game-high 26 points and Marqui Worthy added 17 points for UC Riverside, which ended its season at 10-22, 5-15.
UH ends the regular season with a “Senior Night” home game against Long Beach State (9-22, 5-14). A victory would ensure at least a tie for its first regular season championship since 2016.
“Obviously very appreciative of the win, we’re happy for our guys,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said. “(Games) get harder, not easier, and lot of respect for Riverside, their staff, their kids, their talent. Coming off a big win over Northridge, (they have) two of the top scorers in our league, and an inside presence. They were coming in with some momentum … and came out ready to roll. I loved how we fought back and separated late in the first half.”
Despite the Highlanders coming into the game already mathematically eliminated from qualifying for next week’s Big West Conference tournament, they started the game as if they were still in contention. Henderson scored the first basket just 11 seconds in, and UCR led 9-8, at the four-minute mark after BJ Kolly’s fastbreak dunk. It was 18-18 eight minutes in, until Nmeiksa’s tip-in broke the tie and gave Hawai’i the lead for good with 11:51 remaining in the first half.
“Next man up, I gotta always be ready to come off the bench and bring that spark,” said Nmeiksa, a grad transfer forward. “That’s all we do, is play as a team, win as a team. Everybody can score, everybody can play good, so it doesn’t matter who plays good, as long as we win, we’re cool.”
Nmeiksa’s tip-in ignited an 8-0 run capped by Hunter Erickson’s fastbreak layup to make it 26-18 at the midway point, and the Warriors pretty much maintained it to take a 46-39 lead into halftime.
The Highlanders started the second half much like they started the first and quickly closed it to 54-53 on Kelly’s free throw with 16:33 left, but Isaac Finlinson dropped in a nifty driving layup to start an 11-3 run culminating in Isaac “Big Fish’s” 3-pointer to give UH a 65-56 lead with 11 minutes left in the game.
UC Riverside got as close as 68-63 on De’Undrae Perteete’s free throw with 9:14 remaining, but Dre Bullock answered with a jumper to spark a 17-4 run capped by his own layup to make it 85-67 with 3:35 left to effectively seal the victory.
Big West Conference Standings
*#HAWAI’I 14-5
*#UC Irvine 14-5
*Cal State Northridge 12-7
*UC San Diego 11-8
*UC Davis 11-8
*UC Santa Barbara 11-8
*Cal State Fullerton 11-8
*Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 9-10
Long Beach State 5-14
UC Riverside 5-15
Cal State Bakersfield 2-17
* Clinched berth in Big West Conference Tournament March 11-14 in Henderson, Nev.
# Clinched Top 2 finish and double-bye in Big West Tournament