Hawaiʻi men's basketball drops another one at home to UC Irvine

The problems are adding up.

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The University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team fell victim to another flat performance and fell, 60-50, to Big West Conference leader, the UC Irvine Anteaters at the Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday.

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Bernardo da Silva was the only UH player to crack double digits, as he had 17 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double. The next closest was Juan Munoz with nine points.

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UC Irvine had three players break double digits with Pierre Crockwell II leading with 16 points. Justin Hohn and Carter Welling followed with 12 each.

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Hawaiʻi and Irvine were in close proximity out of the gate. The 'Bows took a scant two-point lead early, but it was very short-lived. There appeared to be a dogfight, but Irvine was not so sure.

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Irvine took the lead for good off a Dean Keeler hook shot with 9:55 remaining in the first half. It then turned into a 15-point lead with 3:02 remaining.

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To add insult to injury, Head Coach Eran Ganot was called for a technical foul at the 4:09 mark.

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UH fell victim to that early run, just like against Cal State Fullerton, and had to play catch-up again. They would end the first half down, 33-20.

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"I think we have the pieces to be a special team," Munoz said. "We just got to figure out what we're doing wrong and just fix it."

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"Coach always talks about the best is yet to come," Da Silva added. "We just got to stick with it."

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The second half started with an early run sparked by two Ryan Rapp triples. Before long, UH was in the neighborhood, but Irvine's field goals were enough to make UH start from square one.

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"Our offense is killing us right now," Ganot said. "I don't think we're a selfish group; we might play selfish at times. We've got the best guys in the world."

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UH cut the deficit down to three, 48-45 with 9:05 remaining, thanks to a Munoz triple at the shot clock buzzer; unfortunately, that was the closest the 'Bows could get.

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In the final nine minutes, UH was held to just two made field goals while Irvine scored 12 points of their own to pull away. UH's final field goal came at the buzzer from Tom Beattie for the final arithmetic.

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"When we hit a wall, we go on our own, and I and we need to do better with that," Ganot added. "If one or two don't go down, we go into not sharing the ball."

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UH drops to 1-3 in Big West play, and 9-7 overall, while UC Irvine improves to a perfect 5-0. UH has another tough task in the UC Riverside Highlanders on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, at 7 p.m. HST at the Stan Sheriff Center. You can watch the game on Spectrum Sports or listen on ESPN Honolulu.