Warrior Insider

The University of Hawai’i basketball team rebounded in a huge way in a 76-53 road victory over Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at Titan Gym in Fullerton, Calif.

The Rainbow Warriors snapped a four-game losing streak, which included a 16-point loss to the same Fullerton team on Friday, to improve to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the Big West Conference. The Titans dropped to 4-5 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

Hawai’i pulled away from Fullerton by dominating the rebounding margin. The Warriors out-rebounded the Titans 48-21 overall, including 18-2 in offensive rebounds. As a result of the offensive boards, the Warriors scored 20 “second chance” points, while the Titans scored one.

Junior Madut led a balanced Hawai’i offense with 14 points, and James Jean-Marie added 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Co-captains Justin Webster and Casdon Jardine each added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Several Hawai’i reserves played key roles in the victory: center Mate Colina grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to go along with five points; forward Justin Hemsley hit two 3-pointers and scored eight points to spark a first-half surge; point guard Jovon McClanahan tallied four points and five assists.

The Warriors struggled defensively in Friday’s loss at Fullerton, but turned it around in the rematch. Fullerton shot just 42.2 percent (19 of 45) from the field, including just 21.1 percent (4 of 21) from 3-point range.

“We had a team meeting last night, we all had to come together,” Webster said in a post-game interview on the ESPN3 webcast. “We all had to get stuff off our chests and we came together as brothers. Our coaches didn’t feel like we were (playing as) one on this four-game losing streak, so tonight our motto was to come in and play hard, play as a team and play together. That’s what we did.”

Hawai’i shot 47.1 percent (32 of 68), including 34.8 percent (8 of 23) from 3-point range.

The lead changed 10 times in the first half, but the Warriors closed it with an 8-0 run to take a 35-28 advantage at halftime.

The Warriors built their early advantage by working the boards from the start. Hawai’i out-rebounded the Titans 21-11 in the first half, including a 10-0 advantage on the offensive boards.

Fullerton stayed close in the first half by shooting 57.1 percent (12 of 21) from the field, but Hawai’i adjusted and limited the Titans to 29.2 percent (7 of 24) shooting in the decisive second half.

The Warriors maintained the momentum in the second half, opening with a 12-3 surge to extend their lead to 47-31. The Titans never got closer than 13 points in the game’s final 12 minutes.

Hawai’i played its second consecutive game without injured players Bernardo da Silva and Noel Coleman.

Tray Maddox Jr. led Fullerton with 12 points and was the only Titan to score in double-figures. He scored 23 in Friday’s game.

Hawai’i will return to Honolulu on Sunday, and will host a two-game series against first-place UC Irvine on January 29 and 30.

“We’re going to figure this out,” Webster said. “We’re going to string together some wins and we’re going to put Hawai’i on the map.”

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Big West Conference
Saturday’s Results
UC Santa Barbara 80, at CSUN 66
at UC Irvine 67, Cal Poly 44
at UC Riverside 70, CSU Bakersfield 63
UC Davis 78, at UC San Diego 71
Hawai’i 76, at Cal State Fullerton 53