BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The Hawai'i men's basketball team maintained its place atop the Big West standings with a 89-74 win at CSU Bakersfield Thursday night at the Icardo Center.
The Rainbow Warriors (18-5, 10-3 Big West) won their fifth game in the last six and moved into first place alone in the conference following a UC Irvine loss Thursday night. The 'Bows now sit half a game ahead of UC Santa Barbara and a full game up on the Anteaters. The win is also UH's third conference road victory by 15 or more points and fifth Big West win overall by at least 15.
Five Hawai'i players finished in double figures with
Dre Bullock's 19 points leading the way.
Harry Rouhliadeff and
Isaac Johnson each added 17 points while Gytis Nemeiksa scored 12 off the bench and
Isaac Finlinson put in 10 points.
The 'Bows shot 8-for-21 from three-point range and 50 percent from the field, and went 25-for-32 from the free throw line, including 20-of-25 in the second half. On the defensive end, Hawai'i held CSUB to just one made three on 13 attempts after coming into the game ranked fourth nationally in three-point field goal defense.
Trailing 16-14 five minutes in after hot starts offensively by both sides, the 'Bows used a 9-0 run to go up by seven at the 10:37 mark. The Roadrunners cut the UH lead back to three, but an 18-6 run over the next seven minutes highlighted by a trio of three-pointers and a three-point play made it 41-26 with 1:54 to go in the half.
Johnson and Bullock scored 11 points apiece in the first half while UH went 6-for-11 from three-point range to help open up a 43-32 lead after 20 minutes.
The Roadrunners (9-17, 2-12 Big West) trimmed the Hawai'i lead to eight a few possessions into the second half, but the Rainbow Warriors opened up a big lead with a 21-6 run over the next five minutes to go up 66-43 with 11:44 left.
CSUB fought back, cutting the UH lead to single digits with a 16-2 run to make it a nine-point game with under eight minutes to play, but the 'Bows again pulled away to finish off their fourth road victory in Big West play.
The Rainbow Warriors close out its two-game road swing with a contest versus CSUN on Saturday, Feb. 14 Tipoff is 5:00 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m HT at the Premier America Credit Union Arena.
