The drought is finally done!

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A crowd of 4,886 at the Stan Sheriff Center saw the University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team end a four-game skid with a crucial, 63-56, win over the UC Riverside Highlanders on Saturday. This also marks the first home victory against UCR since 2019.

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"That was a really passionate game on the court," Hawaiʻi coach Eran Ganot said. "I'm so happy for our guys."

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JoVon McClanahan led the way for UH with 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting, including a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line. Noel Coleman was next with 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

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Barrington Hargress led Riverside with 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Nate Pickens was next with 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. UCR's lead scorer Isaiah Moses was held to just four points scored.

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"He's going to be a really good player for them," McKoy said of Hargress.

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Bernardo da Silva drew first blood 26 seconds into the game. UH then got eight of the first 10 points of the contest.

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Riverside managed to respond with a run of their own and took the lead briefly, only to lose it by the second media timeout, 14-13.

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Justin McKoy and Juan Munoz stopped their gravy train with an and-one from McKoy, and UH's first triple with 11 minutes remaining via Munoz. All of a sudden, UH found themselves back in front, 18-15.

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Teammate Akira Jacobs came off the bench and gave the team some help. Jacobs banked an additional triple to give UH more breathing room over Riverside.

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The 'Bows remained solid and did not surrender their lead after the 9:26 mark. Jacobs banked another triple at the 7:46 mark to put UH up, 25-19.

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UH did not subject themselves to an early run from their opponents, and they ended the first half up, 35-34.

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The second half saw Riverside make an early small run to take a brief three-point lead, 40-37. UH did not fold though.

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Coleman buried UH's only triple of the second half with 13:23 remaining to put them back in front, 44-42. Riverside was not going to go down quietly though.

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"We just showed that we can be clutch in the moment," McClanahan said. "Ryan Rapp was doing an incredible job of crashing the boards."

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Hargress buried a triple of his own to extend Riverside's lead to four, 48-44, with 11:20 remaining. Little did they know they were going to run into trouble shortly thereafter.

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With 9:08 remaining, Hargress made another field goal to make it 50-47. After that, Riverside would go scoreless for over the next eight minutes.

 

UH took the lead back off a da Silva layup with 5:39 remaining and would never let it go. Despite having trouble with clutch play in those four lost games, UH erased all of that and made their shots, which included the last six consecutive free throws.

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"We stayed together a lot more," McKoy said of the crunch time. "Everyone made a contribution whether they played or on the bench."

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Due to that scoring drought, Riverside was held to just six points the rest of the way. Moses would end the drought with two made free throws, followed by a Will Tattersall triple with 41 seconds left.

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McClanahan, McKoy, and Coleman all made their free throws down the stretch for the final arithmetic.

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"I thought the leadership was good," Ganot said. "We were competing the whole game."

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UH now improves to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in Big West Conference play while UC Riverside falls to 2-4. UH will now hit the road for two games at Long Beach State on Jan. 18, and at UC San Diego on Jan. 20. Tipoff for the Long Beach State game is 5 p.m. HST, and 2 p.m. HST for the UC San Diego game. You can listen to both games on ESPN Honolulu.