Hawaii has its own take on the familiar mantra of next man up: every man up.
The philosophy has the Rainbow Warriors poised to take a big step.
Riding a four-game winning streak, above .500 again and with the top of the conference in view, UH hosts a good old-fashioned Big West showdown Saturday night against UC Irvine. Tipoff on OCSports is at 7:30 p.m., the nightcap of a doubleheader that begins with the Rainbow Wahine taking on UC Santa Barbara at Stan Sheriff Center.
The key to Hawaii’s recent surge in what once looked to be a surefire rebuilding season?
“We have to be a star in our role and everybody kind of pitches in,” junior forward Gibson Johnson said Thursday night after UH’s 74-65 victory against Cal Poly.
The easiest role to define is that of Noah Allen, the team MVP and a leading contender for conference Player of the Year, who continued his scoring tear with 21 points – the sixth time in the past eight games the senior has surpassed the 20-point barrier, and he also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
But recent success for Hawaii (12-11, 6-4) goes far beyond Allen, a transfer from UCLA.
“We talked about this last year,” coach Eran Ganot said, “but this is the third time we’ve had a guy out, and then someone stepped up, and the team stepped up.”
With shooting guard Leland Green missing a second consecutive game with what the Star-Advertiser reported as a lingering illness, Johnson needed just 15 minutes to collect 15 points, freshman forward Jack Purchase added 11 points and freshman center Ido Flaisher provided a boost off the bench with 10 points and six rebounds.
It was Flaisher’s first game in double-figures since the opener, and he provided six points during a key 16-4 run that the Rainbow Warriors used to pull away from a second-half tie against the Mustangs (7-17, 2-8).
“Everybody loves Ido,” Johnson said. “We love to see him be successful, too. Everybody gets behind Ido. He’s a fan favorite, and you can see why. He’s kind of goofy.”
Hawaii shot 51 percent and had a 46-10 scoring advantage inside. Better ball sharing, help defense and competitive rebounding have been recent team staples, Ganot said.
“It been coming on, in practices and the ways the guys have been playing,” the second-year coach said. “We talked about chipping away three or four weeks ago. We have a lot of holes still, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Tied for third place, Saturday’s game against the second-place Anteaters (14-12, 7-3) is rematch of Hawaii’s most lopsided loss of the season, an 84-56 road defeat Jan. 7.
Irvine leads the Big West in scoring defense (65.9), field-goal defense (.385), rebound margin (plus 7.4), and blocks (4.3), and features a strong backcourt featuring Jaron Martin (13.4 points per game) and Luke Nelson (13.3).
In being held to its second-lowest scoring output of the season during its first meeting with the Anteaters, Hawaii shot an anemic from 3-point range (3 of 24) and was outrebounded 39-28.
UH is better equipped to compete with Irvine this time around, Johnson said.
“We have some (teams) who have been playing with each other for three or four years, and we’ve all been together for 23 games,” Johnson said. “Our chemistry is building and the fight and effort is there. As we keep expanding on that, we’ll be fine.”
With seven schools separated by two games in the conference race, a win would move Hawaii into a second-place tie with Irvine. The Rainbow Warriors begin Saturday just 1 1/2 games behind first-place Cal Davis, who already own a win at Stan Sheriff Center. The teams will meet again March 2 in California.
“My expectation was to win the conference again,” Johnson said, “just because as a competitor that’s what you expect. Nobody new me or Noah or really anybody else, so obviously they’re not expecting us to return to the tournament or anything like that.”
Wahine: The UH women (8-14, 4-6) look to end a three-game losing streak against the Gauchos (11-12, 6-4), who lost their last two games to fall below .500. Tipoff is 5 p.m. on OCSports.
Sarah Toeaina ranks third in the Big West, averaging 16.6 points in league play. No Santa Barbara player averages in double figures, but five Gauchos average 8.9 points or more.