{"id":302,"date":"2023-11-25T00:15:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T10:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=302"},"modified":"2023-11-26T01:27:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T11:27:13","slug":"warriors-rout-ut-rio-grande-valley-76-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/25\/warriors-rout-ut-rio-grande-valley-76-57\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors rout UT-Rio Grande Valley, 76-57"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Senior guard Matthue Cotton scored a game-high 23 points, off 5 for 7 shooting from 3-point range, to help Hawai’i blow past Texas-Rio Grande Valley Friday in the Acrisure Invitational. (File photo courtesy Brandon Flores Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matthue Cotton scored a game-high 23 points and fellow senior guard Noel Coleman added 17 points Friday evening to help Hawai’i blow past Texas-Rio Grande Valley, 76-57, in the first round of the Acrisure Invitational at Palm Desert, Calif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A neutral site crowd of 735 at Acrisure Arena watched Bernardo da Silva contribute 14 points and seven rebounds as the Warriors improved to 4-0 and advanced to Saturday’s championship final against San Diego, which is 5-1 after defeating Arkansas State, 71-57, in Friday’s second game. The title match is set for 5:30 p.m. (Hawai’i time) and will be broadcast live via radio on CBS 1500AM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UH used an early 9-0 run to lead 14-4 six minutes into the game, before the Vaqueros cut it to 14-10 two minutes later. Cotton then hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 19-5 run capped by his two free throws to stretch the margin to 33-15 with 7:44 remaining in the first half, and da Silva sank a pair of free throws 19 seconds before the break to put the Warriors ahead 43-23 at intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closest Texas-Rio Grande Valley got in the second half was 70-55 with 3:23 left, and Coleman and da Silva then hit short jumpers in the paint to extend it to 74-55 with 2:30 remaining and effectively seal the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our guys were prepared, we had a great week of traveling, we prepared well the past couple days on a quick turnaround,” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said in his postgame radio interview. “We had a lot of respect for this group that we were playing — they were No. 2 in the country each of the last two years in getting to the line, and they force a lot of turnovers. There were some things I wish we had back in the second half, but you can see us getting better, the glimpses are more consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For a stretch there, we played as well as we had (all season) on both ends.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Warriors held the Vaqueros to 33 percent (21 of 63) shooting, including eight percent (1 for 12) from 3-point range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Matthue Cotton scored a game-high 23 points and fellow senior guard Noel Coleman added 17 points Friday evening to help Hawai’i blow past Texas-Rio Grande Valley, 76-57, in the first round of the Acrisure Invitational at Palm Desert, Calif. A neutral site crowd of 735 at Acrisure Arena watched Bernardo […]<\/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\/302"}],"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=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}