Bench, balance and toughness lead Hawai’i over CSUN

HONOLULU – Depth, determination and second half dominance.

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team won for the fourth time in the last five games on Saturday night, battering down a physical Cal State Northridge inside Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, 89-68. Senior Isaac Johnson scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the way for a Rainbow Warrior squad that shot 64% from the field after halftime en route to the second blowout win of the week.

With the victory, Hawai’i (15-4, 7-2 Big West) matched last season’s overall and conference win totals with 11 regular season games still left to play. The win also kept the Rainbow Warriors tied atop the conference standings with UC Irvine, who took down UC San Diego in La Jolla on Saturday night.

“Great win, given the circumstances, the stakes,” said head coach Eran Ganot. “[CSUN] took it to us last year. Today’s one game, we know it’s going to be a battle over there.”

The Rainbow Warriors were without starting point guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor for the second consecutive contest after the sophomore suffered a foot injury during Wednesday’s practice. Graduate guard Hunter Erickson filled in the point guard duties admirably with 10 points, six rebounds and career-high eight assists in 32 minutes of action despite dealing with early foul woes.

“His maturity down the stretch to end the first half,” Ganot said while speaking about the veteran guard’s all-around impact. “He was battling foul trouble, and he was still engaged … That’s why we won, because everybody has sacrificed for the group.”

The UH bench outscored CSUN’s reserves, 31-3, led by Gytis Nemeikša’s 16 points and six rebounds in 25 minutes of work. Isaiah Kerr added another nine points and a pair of steals in 19 minutes of his own off the bench.

Nemeikša had the sweet touch from the beginning, helping push Hawai’i ahead 7-4 going into the under 16-minute media timeout with his first of three 3-pointers on the night. An aggressive Rainbow Warrior unit pushed through shooting struggles to get the Matadors into early foul trouble, entering the single bonus with more than 14 minutes left in the first half and extending the advantage to seven quickly after.

CSUN swung back with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 25 as the clock ticked under four minutes before halftime, seeing UH continue to struggle finding any true offensive rhythm.

Enter Ike Finlinson.

After doing the dirty work to start with a block, steal and an offensive rebound through the opening 18 minutes, the reigning JUCO National Player of the Year broke the Rainbow Warriors’ 1-for-12 skid from distance with back-to-back triples that put Hawai’i up 33-27 with two minutes left before halftime.

“You’ve got to make good defensive teams work so things start to open up, and you’ve got to play with a little swagger and confidence,” Ganot said. “If we start passing up good looks, we’re not good at anything. So, I’m proud that our guys that they put in the work, and they have the confidence to stay with it. I think Ike was a big part of that to end the half.”

That infectious swagger spread as Nemeikša added his second 3-pointer a minute later and Isaac Johnson cashed in off of a no-look, behind-the-head pass from Hunter Erickson at the buzzer to send the Rainbow Warriors into the locker room leading by six and send the Stan Sheriff Center crowd into a craze.

“He’s a stud, he just does that,” Johnson said with a smile about the flashy pass from Erickson. “I had every bit of confidence in him. Like when he gets down there, shooters just have to be ready.”

The flood gates opened in the second half as Erickson knocked down a transition three to push the UH advantage to 10 less than two minutes after play resumed. Johnson got in on the fun with a dunk and a 27-foot heat check 3-pointer less than a minute later, activating his microwave scoring ability to put Hawai’i on cruise control the rest of the way.

Erickson drained UH’s 10th triple of the night and Nemeikša added a pair of free throws to put the Rainbow Warriors up by 20 with 8:19 to play, and the Hawai’i defense cleaned up the remainer of the night as CSUN (11-10, 4-5 Big West) was held to its lowest point total in a conference game this season.

Dre Bullock added 13 points and seven rebounds for UH while Ike Finlinson finished with 11 points and four rebounds while playing a season-high 31 minutes for the Rainbow Warriors.

Hawai’i won the battle of the boards for the second straight game, outrebounding the Big West’s leaders on the glass in the Matadors, 44-42. Players emphasized in the postgame how a commitment to being the tougher team on Saturday played a key difference in taking down CSUN.

“The edge that we had to set us up for that successful run [between the end of the first half and beginning of the second half] was that we won the toughness battle,” Johnson said.

Finlinson added: “Big focus going into this game that we’ve got to be the tougher team, set the tone from the beginning and I think we did that tonight.”

Senior guard Larry Hughes II paced CSUN in the loss, scoring 19 points while being held to 7-of-20 shooting from the floor. Preseason All-Big West forward Mahmoud Fofana tallied 14 points and five rebounds for the Matadors, going 6-of-9 from the field.

Hawai’i hits the road next for a nationally-televised rematch against UC Irvine on Thursday, January 29 in a battle for sole possession of first place in the Big West. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. HT / 11 p.m. ET on ESPNU.