Warrior Insider

A second-half rally to force overtime was not enough as the University of Hawai’i basketball team got outlasted by Cal State Fullerton, 79-72, on Saturday in Fullerton, Calif.

The Titans out-scored the Rainbow Warriors 19-12 in overtime to secure the win before a crowd of 823 at Titan Gym.

Hawai’i had its seven-game winning streak ended and dropped to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in the Big West Conference. CSUF improved to 9-7 and 3-1.

UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara both won on Saturday to improve to 3-0 as the only remaining undefeated teams in the BWC.

Bernardo da Silva led the Warriors with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, but he fouled out with 3:26 remaining in overtime. Noel Coleman added 16 points – including a game-tying 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

JoVon McClanahan had 11 points and six assists, and Beon Riley contributed 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench for Hawai’i.

The Warriors trailed by 12 in the first half and by eight with less than four minutes remaining in the second half, but forced overtime on Coleman’s clutch 3-pointer.

“Really proud of our guys to fight to force overtime,” head coach Eran Ganot said during a post-game radio interview on ESPN Honolulu. “It’s a really difficult outcome that will help us. This is league play … 22 turnovers sticks out. That’s been a big priority for us going into this year. It was good early and started to rear its ugly head again.”

The Warriors committed a season-high 22 turnovers, which led to 19 points for CSUF. Also of statistical note, CSUF went 33 for 41 on free throws, while the Warriors were 18 of 27.

Otherwise, Hawai’i shot better than the Titans from the field and 3-point range. The Warriors went 25 for 59 overall and 4 of 19 from 3-point range; the Titans were 22 of 54 overall and 2 of 13 from 3-point range.

“We held them to 40 percent (field goal shooting) and 15 percent (3-point shooting),” Ganot noted. “You should win those games on the road. But the difference was the turnovers and the free throws.”

The score was tied at 5 early, then the Titans went on a 9-0 run over a three-minute stretch to take a 14-5 lead with 12:55 remaining in the first half. CSUF led by as many as 12 in the first half, and eventually took a 31-22 lead at intermission.

The Warriors shot 35 percent (7 for 20) from the field in the first half, including 22.2 percent (2 for 9) from 3-point range. They also committed 10 turnovers, and got out-scored 18-6 on “points in the paint.”

Hawai’i opened the second half with a 12-4 run in the first five minutes to cut the CSUF lead to 35-34. Moments later, the Warriors took a brief 39-37 lead on a 3-pointer by Coleman with 12:30 remaining.

The game stayed close the rest of the way, with the lead changing three times. The Titans went 5 for 6 on free throws during a two-minute stretch and built a 56-48 lead with 3:06 remaining.

Hawai’i chipped away and had possession of the ball, trailing 58-55 with 30 seconds remaining. Coleman found da Silva cutting to the basket for a dunk that cut the CSUF lead to 58-57 with 13.6 seconds remaining.

Tory San Antonio made two free throws to put the Titans back up by three, 60-57, with 12.6 seconds remaining.

After a timeout, the Warriors tied the game at 60 when McClanahan found Coleman open on the wing for a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining.

Da Silva fouled out with 3:26 remaining in overtime and the score tied at 62. The Titans immediately went on a 7-0 surge to take control of the game for good.

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Big West Conference
Saturday’s Results
UC Santa Barbara 62, Cal Poly 57
at UC Davis 67, CSU Bakersfield 47
at UC Riverside 68, CSUN 45
at Cal State Fullerton 79, Hawai’i 72 (OT)
at UC Irvine 87, Long Beach State 70