Warrior Insider

The University of Hawai’i basketball team was one of eight teams in the Big West Conference that endured a stretch of three games in six days last week.

The Rainbow Warriors went 2-1 last week, including a crucial 67-63 road win at UC Riverside on Saturday. The Highlanders were in first place prior to the game.

Hawai’i is in fourth place in the BWC with a 6-2 conference record, but only one game behind first-place UC Santa Barbara.

Last week’s schedule followed a Monday-Thursday-Saturday game schedule due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on January 16. Only one team – UC Santa Barbara – was able to go 3-0 during that stretch. As a result, the Gauchos are now in first place in the BWC at 7-1. It is a precarious position, however, as four other contenders are within two games of the lead.

Here are the current standings:

Hawai’i opened the week with a home win over last-place CSUN on Monday, then flew out to California the next day. The Warriors lost at UC Irvine on Thursday before rebounding with the win at Riverside.

The Warriors are again involved in a “game of the week” with the first-place team this week, when they host UC Santa Barbara on Thursday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

There were a few other developments of note last week in the BWC:

• Long Beach State went 2-0 last week and moved up to sixth place in the standings. The Beach won the regular-season championship last year.

• CSUN won its first BWC game of this season, upsetting Cal State Fullerton, 69-66, on Saturday. The Matadors are now 1-8 in the BWC, a half-game behind Cal Poly (1-7).

• Long Beach State scored an incredible 112-110 triple-overtime win on the road at UC San Diego on Saturday. The Beach scored five points in 5.6 seconds in the third OT to win it. It came on one free throw, a missed free throw, an offensive putback, a steal of the inbounds pass, and then a dunk with 2.6 remaining on the clock.

The Beach had only eight players available for the game due to injuries, and junior guard Marcus Tsohonis scored 46 points while playing 54 minutes.

Here is this week’s schedule:

Thursday’s Games
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
UC San Diego at CSUN
UC Davis at CSU Bakersfield
UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton
UC Santa Barbara at Hawai’i

Saturday’s Games
UC San Diego at UC Riverside
UC Davis at Long Beach State
CSUN at UC Irvine
Cal State Fullerton at Cal Poly
CSU Bakersfield at Hawai’i