Warrior Insider

Flipping the script by surprisingly transforming from prey to predator, UC Riverside pounced on unsuspecting Hawai’i Wednesday night and rallied past the host Warriors, 64-60, in stunning Big West Conference men’s basketball.

A befuddled Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,206 (tickets issued) watched Menno Dijkstra finish with a team-high 17 points and six rebounds and Chance Murray add 16 points and six assists as the last-place Highlanders improved to 6-17 overall and notched their first league victory against eight losses.

Mike Thomas scored a game-high 18 points, Brocke Stepteau added 11 points and Jack Purchase grabbed a game-high 10 boards for Warriors, who fell to 13-9, 4-5 with their fourth straight loss. Hawai’i remained in sixth place, but is now three games behind the conference leaders with seven games remaining in the regular season.

“Tough one today,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “I gotta do a better job of getting our team back to where we were … (at) the highest level of commitment, leadership, attitude, effort. You can’t have it spots, (it has to be) every single guy. We’re going to back to work like we always do, we’re going to handle it with class, like I hope we always do. Give (UC Riverside) credit … and then go back to work and see what you can fix.

“I have great belief in our team, (but) I don’t have any belief in the way we are doing things currently.”

After a rocky first half, the Warriors led for much of the second half until Murray drained a 3-pointer with 2:28 remaining to put the Highlanders ahead, 55-53.

Shortly after that shot, Ganot was assessed a technical foul – the first of his career – for arguing a non-call on a drive to the basket by Thomas. UCR’s Koh Flippin made one of the two free throws awarded for the tech to give the Highlanders a 56-53 lead.

Hawai’i stayed close and trailed 62-60 after Stepteau’s 3-pointer from the left wing with seven seconds remaining, but Dijkstra sealed the victory with two free throws one second later.

Despite the appearance of UC Riverside stealing the victory at the end, Thomas said the Warriors let it slip away long before that.

“(It was) the entire game, start-to-finish,” Thomas said. “Discipline, defense, different little things like that. It’s stuff we’re working to get better on.”

In an unexpected last-minute shakeup, Ganot promoted young reserves Zigmars Raimo (a sophomore) and Samuta Avea (a true freshman) into the starting five, along with former starter Jack Purchase, a junior who had not started since the Nevada game way back on Nov. 24. Usual starters Thomas, Gibson Johnson and Sheriff Drammeh were relegated to reserve roles.

“I thought the guys who were in there, deserved to be in there,” Ganot said.

Thomas and Johnson – the only two seniors on the team – had started all 21 of the previous games this season.

When asked whether the new lineup came with a sacrifice in terms of strategy, game plan or matchups, Ganot said only that “I wasn’t going to sacrifice our culture.”

After UH took a brief 13-12 lead on Leland Green’s 3-pointer from the right wing, the Highlanders responded with a 9-2 run capped by Eric Rwahwire’s 3-pointer to lead 21-15 midway through the first half. The Warriors then chipped away and Green’s coast-to-coast fast break layup just four seconds before halftime tied the score at 30-30.

After the horn, UCR interim coach Justin Bell was called for a technical foul, and so Hawai’i actually took a 32-30 lead on Purchase’s two free throws immediately prior to the start of the second half.

The Warriors later expanded the lead to 47-40 on Thomas’ layup any the midway point of the second half, but the Highlanders employed a three-quarter court press soon after and UH only managed one field goal over the next nine minutes.

“It wasn’t really like a ‘trying-to-steal-the-ball’ press, (it was) just slowing us down and we’ve seen that the last couple of games,” Stepteau said. “We have a tendency to get stagnant now, and it takes us out of our rhythm a little bit. So it might not have gotten steals off the press, but it affected our offense, and that can’t happen.”

The Warriors have two days to regroup before taking on Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m. Saturday at the SSC. Ganot said if they cannot do so, they are vulnerable for a repeat outcome.

The last time a Hawai’i team had a four-game losing streak against conference opponents was in 2012, when the Warriors were in the Western Athletic Conference.

“I think the game (of basketball) is great … and what goes with it is if you don’t honor it on a daily basis at the highest level, you get exposed,” Ganot said. “Our team is built on ‘team,’ and if one guy does’t do his job — myself included — you can get rocked, and you deserve to get rocked. It’s competitive, and there are hungry guys everywhere. You’ve got to bring it every day.”

CLICK HERE to view boxscore

(Game photos courtesy Chris Kadooka)

CLICK HERE to view photo gallery

Wednesday’s Results
at UC Irvine 77, CSUN 56
UC Riverside 64, at Hawai’i 60

Thursday’s Games, Feb. 8
UC Santa Barbara at UC Davis
Cal Poly at Cal State Fullerton

Saturday’s Games, Feb. 10
Cal State Fullerton at UC Davis
UC Irvine at UC Riverside
Cal Poly at Long Beach State
CSUN at Hawai’i, 7:00 p.m.