{"id":3838,"date":"2026-03-15T23:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=3838"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:06:09","slug":"warriors-win-big-west-secure-automatic-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/warriors-win-big-west-secure-automatic-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors win Big West, secure automatic bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hawai’i head coach Eran Ganot hoists the Big West Conference Championship trophy after receiving it from league commissioner Dan Butterly as the team celebrates its 71-64 victory over UC Irvine at the Lee Family Forum in Henderson, Nev. (Brandon Flores Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Departing the Big West Conference with a huge bang, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 on Saturday night with an inspiring 71-64 victory over longtime nemesis UC Irvine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win also represented the Warriors’ first league title since that year, when UH won a school-record 28 games and advanced to the second round of the Big Dance for first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A largely Hawai’i-based crowd of 3,488 at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nev., watched Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson score a game-high 22 points with seven rebounds and three blocked shots and senior captain Harry Rouhliadeff add 15 points, a game-high 12 boards with two assists and two steals as the Warriors improved to 24-8 after their final game in the Big West before moving to the Mountain West Conference next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurian Dixon scored 17 points with four rebounds and three assists and three steals and Kyle Evans and Derin Saran each added 13 points for the Anteaters, who fell to 23-11 and will host a National Invitation Tournament game against UNLV on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just wow, I mean, a lot of emotions go through you,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “You’re pretty locked in (during the game), but when the moment happens, the journey is all that floods through your mind — what these guys have been through this year and over the years. I have so much respect for our conference, the coaches and student-athletes. A lot of credit to UC Irvine on their year, we knew it was going to be a battle, it could have gone either way, it’s very humbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But it’s also a special moment when you do what you do with this group of kids, and do it against that type of competition. I’m just so thankful, for our kids, our staff, our administration, our university, our state, our band, our cheerleaders, our fans, our alums … There’s nothing like being part of a team, and you feel like you’re part of an ultimate team there in a lot of ways.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a tight, back-and-forth opening start, the Warriors appeared to gain some separation after Johnson’s 3-pointer gave them a 21-13 lead with just under seven minutes remaining in the first half. But Saran answered with a fast break layup to ignite a 15-8 surge capped by Evans’ two free throws to put UCI back in front momentarily at 28-27 with 2:22 left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah Kerr quickly responded with a layup at the other end, and UH eventually clung to a 31-30 lead at halftime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Going into this tournament, we knew it was going to be hard,” said Rouhliadeff, who led a physical effort but drew two fouls in the first half. “There’s no doubt about that, this is such a competitive league. But I’m so proud of our guys right now, our effort and defensive toughness. But credit to Irvine, too, they played one helluva game.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a layup by Aki McBirney-Griffin put the Anteaters ahead, 36-35, just over two minutes into the second half, Bullock sank two free throws to give the Warriors the lead for good at 37-36 with 17:41 to go. But UCI stayed close, and Andre Henry’s 3-pointer closed it to 62-59 with 5:35 remaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after the Warriors built a 66-59 lead with just 90 seconds left, the Anteaters scored five straight and cut it to 66-64 in Evans’ layup with 38 ticks on the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Hawai’i answered with Rouhliadeff’s layup off of Johnson’s assist, and — after a missed 3-pointer by Saran — Bullock put an explanation on the victory by soaring through the air for a breakaway double-pump two-hand slam to make it 70-64 with 17 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dixon missed a 3-point attempt at the other end, and Rouhliadeff was fouled and sank a free throw with 10 seconds remaining, setting off the celebration moments later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We brought our energy to Vegas and shifted gears quickly,” Bullock said. “Credit to the fans tonight, credit to everybody — teammates, coaches … everybody played a role.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said the team quickly turned a regular season-ending home loss to ninth-place Long Beach State on March 7 into a positive vehicle for the Big West Conference tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If not getting a (regular season co-champion) ring that night meant getting a ring tonight, then I’ll take that 100 times out of 100,” Johnson said. “We used that as fuel, and we locked in this week. I think during practices we got a little bit of our swag back, we joked around and were happy and got the mood back up … but we were locked in, which I think was the most important part. We knew personnel, we knew sets, and the coaches did an amazing job of preparing us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And so I think that game exposed us a little bit, and showed us what we needed to fix. So … here we are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ganot said the victory and championship was earned not just by the team, but everyone surrounding the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s an all-encompassing program, institutional state forever,” Ganot said. “We have a lot of people working hard … the grind of our administration, the grind of our fans, the grind of our band, the cheerleaders, the alums, the Big West Conference to put on a first-class event … there are so many people behind the scenes to make this happen … how can you not thank them when you get the chance?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CREDIT UNION 1 BIG WEST CONFERENCE ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRE BULLOCK, HAWAI’I<\/strong>
Josiah Davis, Cal State Northridge
Jurian Dixon, UC Irvine
ISAAC JOHNSON, HAWAI’I<\/strong>
HARRY ROUHLIADEFF, HAWAI’I<\/strong>
Derin Saran, UC Irvine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: <\/strong>

ISAAC JOHNSON, HAWAI’I<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Departing the Big West Conference with a huge bang, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 on Saturday night with an inspiring 71-64 victory over longtime nemesis UC Irvine. The win also represented the Warriors’ first league […]<\/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\/3838"}],"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=3838"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3879,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions\/3879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}