Hawai’i offense disappears late in loss at UC Santa Barbara

Empty trip. 

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team fell for the sixth time in the last eight games on Saturday night, going cold late down the stretch as UC Santa Barbara downed the Rainbow Warriors, 76-72. Hawai’i (13-11, 5-8 Big West) fought back from a double-digit second half deficit to hold a 3-point lead with more than four minutes to play before the Gauchos locked down the visitors to close it out. 

UC Santa Barbara guard Duece Turner finished tied for the game high, pouring in 23 points in 20 minutes off the bench in the victory for the Gauchos. Starting guard Jason Fontenet II added 12 points and eight rebounds while Stephan Swenson and Kenny Pohto each chipped in 10 points as UCSB (16-8, 8-5 Big West) beat UH for the seventh straight time.

Tanner Christensen recorded his first 20-point outing since November in the loss for the Rainbow Warriors, tallying 23 points and eight boards on an efficient 10-of-13 shooting performance. Ryan Rapp racked up 18 points off the bench while Harry Rouhliadeff and Kody Williams had 11 and 10 points respectively for Hawai’i, who sits in seventh place with a one-game cushion in the Big West standings with less than a month left in the regular season. 

After playing to a 7-7 tie over the opening four minutes, UC Santa Barbara quickly took control after the first media timeout with a 13-0 run before Kody Williams ended the UH scoring drought with his first 3-pointer of the game made it a 20-10 deficit for the Rainbow Warriors with 10 minutes left in the first half. The triple from Williams sparked a 19-2 run for Hawai’i, powered by eight points from Ryan Rapp to push UH in front by four with 5:44 remaining before the break. 

The end of the first half foreshadowed the future as Hawai’i mustered six points over the final five minutes of the stanza, watching the Gauchos race back in front going into the locker rooms, 39-32. 

After a Cole Anderson put UCSB back up by double digits to start the second half, the Rainbow Warriors fought back again to take the lead by three with 10:31 left in regulation. The two sides continued trading blows, seeing Hawai’i hold a slim 68-65 lead with just over four minutes remaining before the offense froze. The Gauchos would outscore the Rainbow Warriors, 11-4, over the waning minutes as the visitors found Santa Barbara to be a house of horrors again for a 76-72 loss. 

Hawai’i returns to action on Thursday, looking for revenge as they play host to Long Beach State with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. HT. The Beach enters the new week owing the longest current losing streak in the Big West with eight consecutive losses.