{"id":2299,"date":"2025-01-11T08:33:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T18:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2025-01-11T08:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T18:36:17","slug":"warriors-looking-for-road-sweep-at-fullerton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/11\/warriors-looking-for-road-sweep-at-fullerton\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors looking for road sweep at Fullerton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hawai’i guard Kody Williams, shown here against Charlotte, scored 11 points with six rebounds and four assists Thursday night to help the Warriors win at UC Riverside, 83-76. (Chris Kadooka photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Heading from Southern California’s Inland Empire toward Orange County, there usually is excitement as the Happiest Place on Earth gets nearer. But for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team, that excitement is not for Disneyland in Anaheim, but Titan Gym at nearby Cal State Fullerton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the venue for Saturday’s 11 a.m. (HST) Big West Conference game pitting the Warriors (10-5 overall, 2-2 league) against the host Titans (5-12, 0-5). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UH is coming off an impressive 83-76 victory at UC Riverside on Thursday, while the Titans are on a three-game skid after a 63-53 loss at UC Davis that same night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While excited about the potential of a rare road sweep, the Warriors are wary of Cal State Fullerton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every time I’ve played them, they’ve been one of the grittiest teams that I’ve played against,” said Hawai’i senior guard Ryan Rapp. “They compete, they’re tough, I don’t think their record reflects how they’re playing. And once you get into conference (play), anyone can beat anyone on any given day.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior wing Zion Richardson led the Titans on Thursday with 13 points and six rebounds, with sophomore guard Donovan Oday adding 12 points and eight boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warriors coach Eran Ganot said his team appears to be finding its way defensively, especially during crucial stretches in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You can feel it, you can feel the multiple efforts,” Ganot said in a radio interview following Thursday’s victory. “You always talk about chemistry only offensively, but you have to find it defensively, too. We saw multiple efforts, tough contested shots. I saw great leadership. I think our defensive numbers are getting back to what we’re known for, we’ve always taken teams off the 3, but now we’re starting to limit their 3-point percentage.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai’i held the Titans to 41.3 percent (36 of 63) shooting from the field, including 10 of 29 (34.5 percent) in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Warriors also won the rebounding battle, 38 to 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big West Conference Standings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC San Diego 4-0
UC Irvine 4-0
Cal State Northridge 3-2
UC Davis 3-2
UC Riverside 3-2
Long Beach State 2-2
UC Santa Barbara 2-2
HAWAI’I 2-2<\/strong>
Cal State Bakersfield 2-3
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-5
Cal State Fullerton 0-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heading from Southern California’s Inland Empire toward Orange County, there usually is excitement as the Happiest Place on Earth gets nearer. But for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team, that excitement is not for Disneyland in Anaheim, but Titan Gym at nearby Cal State Fullerton. That is the venue […]<\/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\/2299"}],"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=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2319,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}