{"id":218,"date":"2023-11-17T01:04:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T11:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=218"},"modified":"2023-11-17T01:21:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T11:21:38","slug":"warriors-shoot-past-niagara-92-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/17\/warriors-shoot-past-niagara-92-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors shoot past Niagara, 92-73"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Noel Coleman scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range, to help Hawai’i beat Niagara and improve to 2-0. (Brandon Flores photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Taking full advantage of its last-minute “bonus game” opportunity, Hawai’i shot past visiting Niagara, 92-73, Thursday night in nonconference men’s basketball action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sparse but lively “WhiteOut” crowd of 1,862 in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Noel Coleman score a game-high 21 points and JoVon McClanahan and Bernardo da Silva each add 14 points as the Warriors improved to 2-0. Braxton Bayless scored 20 points and Kwane Marble added 11 points to lead the Purple Eagles, who fell to 0-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This game was officially added to the schedule just six days prior, to fill a void left by the cancellation of the annual Rainbow Classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UH jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first six minutes and led 20-4 eight minutes in, before weathering a Niagara surge and eventually taking a 48-38 lead into halftime. The Purple Eagles closed it to 48-40 in the opening moments of the second half, but the Warriors responded with a 7-1 run to take a 55-41 lead on McClanahan’s layup three minutes in and Niagara never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had so much respect for them going in, I think that helped us in practice and it helped us get off to a good start,” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “We know we’re not where we want to be yet, but we gotta keep taking steps, and today was a step.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After freshman guard Ahmad Henderson opened the game with a layup 35 seconds in, McClanahan quickly responded with a short pull-up jumper to ignite a 14-0 run capped by Coleman’s 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key with 14:13 remaining in the first half. Coleman then swished another 3-pointer from the same area, this time in transition two minutes later, to make it 20-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It definitely helps when you make your first shot, just giving you that confidence boost,” said Coleman, a senior guard and co-captain. “Just being experienced, knowing that you have to go hard from the jump, I think it helps a lot with your energy throughout the game, and your confidence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henderson capped a 9-2 run with a three-point play to cut it to 22-13 midway through the first half, but that would end his scoring for the night as he finished just 3 of 11 from the field for seven points. He had scored 14 in the season opener at Notre Dame on Nov. 6 and poured in 28 points in a home loss to Bucknell last Saturday, earning him Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He’s a really good player, I just wanted to make sure we respected him and keyed on him, and made none of his shots easy,” said McClanahan, who drew the assignment to guard Henderson. “I think I was just ready for the staggers and him being ready to shoot, and (assistant coach) Rob Jones did an incredible scout, so that I could know exactly where he was going to be on the floor. I think we blew up most of their actions going towards him, because he is one of their primary scorers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And Noel did a helluva job on No. 5 (Luke Bumbalough), one of their top scorers. We just took out their main guys, that was our key and that’s why we won by our margin.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin McKoy scored 12 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for the Warriors, who next play Northern Arizona on Tuesday in a rare 8:30 p.m. tipoff, due to following four games in the AllState Maui Invitational.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking full advantage of its last-minute “bonus game” opportunity, Hawai’i shot past visiting Niagara, 92-73, Thursday night in nonconference men’s basketball action. A sparse but lively “WhiteOut” crowd of 1,862 in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Noel Coleman score a game-high 21 points and JoVon McClanahan and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}