by HONOLULU – The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team fell into a hole early and couldn’t fully recover in a 76-68 loss to UC Irvine Thursday night at the Bren Events Center. The Rainbow Warriors fell to 14-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big West with just their second loss in the last 11 games.
UH, UC Irvine (13-6, 6-1) and UC Santa Barbara entered the evening in a three-way tie for second place. UH’s loss, coupled with the Gauchos win over CSUN, dropped the ‘Bows to fourth in the league standings. UH though is still in the thick of things and just 1.5 games behind first-place UC Riverside, the ‘Bows Saturday opponent.
The Anteaters scored 12 of the game’s first 14 points and never trailed to defeat UH for the second straight time. UH never backed down and pulled within three points in the second half, however UCI denied UH at every turn.
UH held one of the top three-point teams in the country to just 3-of-19 shooting. They couldn’t stop the Eaters inside the arc though, where they shot 26-of-40 (65 percent) for the game. UCI shot 49 percent overall for the highest rate by a UH opponent this year.
Kamaka Hepa led UH with 17 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double in the last three games. JoVon McCLanahan poured in 14 second-half points, while Noel Coleman added 13 points. DJ Davis led UCI with 18 points, while Dawson Baker had 15 points and 10 rebounds.
UC Irvine built a double-digit lead six minutes into the game and led by as many as 14 points midway through the first. UH, which shot just 34 percent in the first 20 minutes, finished the half strong and a Hepa three-pointer at the buzzer made it just a 35-27 deficit at the break.
UH kept that momentum coming out of the locker room and a 12-2 run bridging the halves pulled the Warriors with three, 37-34, just minutes into the second half. The Eaters however went on a 9-2 run to extend their lead back to double-digits and UH would get no closer than six thereafter.
