UH Roundup: Road Warriors Beat San Jose in OT

By Rodney S. Yap

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team overcame a 14-point second-half deficit Saturday to earn a dramatic 83-81 overtime win at San Jose State University. The win was the Rainbow Warriors’ (13-9, 5-3 WAC) third in the last four conference games.

Joston Thomas scored a career-high 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting — including 11 points in a crucial 16-0 run — to help UH maintained its hold of third place in the Western Athletic Conference. The junior forward also added 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year. Meanwhile, the Spartans (7-16, 0-8 WAC) remained winless in league play.

Hawaii continues its trend of close contests. Eight of the team’s last nine games have been decided by six points or less. It was UH’s second overtime road WAC win as the team improved to 3-0 in overtime games this year.

For a while though, it looked like the Bows would get blown out by a Spartan team hungry for its first WAC win. UH trailed by seven at half and fell behind by 14 points, 54-40, with a little more than 13 minutes left in regulation. Turnovers were the team’s bugaboo as UH committed 18, leading to 20 SJSU points.

UH returns to the Stan Sheriff Center for a three-game homestand, beginning with a showdown against first-place Nevada on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m.

In women’s basketball, UH (8-14, 3-4 WAC) fell to Utah State, 69-55 in a WAC game at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday. Breanna Arbuckle scored a team-high 19 points and Kamilah Jackson yanked down a game-high 14 rebounds.

Arbuckle was 6-of-10 from the floor and 7-for-9 from the free-throw line. Arbuckle added seven rebounds with an assist, a steal and a block. Her block tied her with Jeanne Wade for fourth place all-time with 134 career blocked shots. She currently leads the team with 33 rejections.

Jackson had four offensive and 10 defensive boards to lead all players. Molokai’s Kalei Adolpho and Vicky Tagalicod both chipped in nine points apiece. Tagalicod also contributed five rebounds, while Adolpho was second in the game with nine rebounds — six offensive and three defensive.

Utah State (15-6, 6-1 WAC) had four players in double figures, led by Devyn Christensen who had a game-high 25 points.

Hawai`i host San Jose State in a WAC contest next Saturday, Feb. 11, at 5 p.m.

In men’s volleyball, Hawaii continued its dominance over Pacific with a straight-set Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory Saturday in Stockton, Calif. The Warriors extended their win streak over the Tigers to 31 with the 25-21 25-22, 25-19 victory.

UH (6-5, 3-3 MPSF), who won for the 16th straight time over UOP in Stockton, now hold a 40-1 advantage in the series. UH also extended its season win streak to four.

After taking 57 swings with 25 kills in UH’s come-from-behind five-set victory one night earlier, outside hitter Steven Hunt had a match-high 14 kills with four digs and three blocks. Freshman Taylor Averill had 10 kills and four blocks and hit .375.

The Tigers (3-7, 1-4) were led by Adam Troy’s 10 kills.

The Warriors host UC Irvine for a two-match MPSF series, Friday, Feb. 10 and Sunday, Feb. 12.