HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team nearly pulled off an epic comeback before eventually falling to Northern Colorado, 81-78 on the second night of the Outrigger Rainbow Classic Thursday at the SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Rainbow Warriors (1-1) trailed by as many as 26 points in the second half and amazingly got within one point in the frenetic final moments of the game. The deficit however proved to big to overcome against a hot-shooting Bears (2-0) squad who build its leads on the strength of 15 three-pointers.
Daylen Kountz and Dru Kuxhausen each scored 21 points for Northern Colorado while combining for eight of those three-pointers, including six by Kuxhausen. The Rainbow Warriors got a balanced attack with five players in double-figures headlined by
Jerome Desrosiers who finished with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
While Northern Colorado shot lights out from the get-go, the 'Bows struggled in the first half offensively. UH shot 29 percent, including 2-of-13 from long range to trail 39-23 at the break. It didn't get easier for the 'Bows in the second half as the Bears started the second half with a 10-0 run to build a 26-point lead.
The 'Bows wouldn't fold and chipped away at the deficit, cutting it all the way down to eight with six minutes left. UNC answered with some timely three-pointer and the 'Bows found themselves down by 14 with just 3:41. But once again UH wouldn't let up and in frenetic final few minutes, UH got within 78-77 with four seconds left.
After UNC hit a pair of free throws to go up, 80-77, the Bears intentionally fouled
Noel Coleman who hit one-of-two free throws. Desrosiers appeared to get the rebound after the second free throw attempt, but the ball slipped away out-of-bounds with 1.8 seconds and the Bears ultimately held on.
UH shot 58 percent in the second half and out-scored the Bears, 42-18, in the paint. The 'Bows got 14 points each from Coleman,
Kamaka Hepa, and
Bernardo da Silva and 11 from
Junior Madut.
In the day's first game, Pacific took down UH Hilo 85-74. UH will conclude the Outrigger Rainbow Classic on Saturday, Nov. 13 with a meeting vs. Pacific. Tipoff will be at 7:00 p.m.
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