Hawaiʻi men's basketball puts a whooping on UC Davis

The hope is starting to return.

The University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team put on an emphatic show on Saturday against the UC Davis Aggies, 87-70, at the Stan Sheriff Center for their sixth Big West Conference win of 2024.

Bernardo da Silva's double-double led the 'Bows with 19 points and 12 rebounds on 6-for-12 shooting and 7-for-10 at the free-throw line. Noel Coleman was next with 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting and 2-for-3 from 3-point range. Justin McKoy also logged a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and nailed all three of his triples; Tom Beattie rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11, and he made two triples of his own.

For the second straight game, senior point guard JoVon McClanahan sat out due to his shoulder injury.

Elijah Pepper led UC Davis and all scorers with a whopping 27 points, but he was 8-for-25 from the field. Ty Johnson was next with 15 on 5-for-14 shooting and was held to 0-for-2 from 3-point range. Kane Milling rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12.

It was a very energetic first half from both teams. They traded the lead 13 times, and UC Davis forced nine total turnovers for UH while they committed two themselves.

Niko Rocak drew first blood for the game, but Juan Munoz responded with the first triple of the game for UH.

Davis took as much as a five-point lead with 5:53 remaining, but despite two turnovers committed, UH used their 3-point shooting to roar back.

UH went 9-for-11 (82%) from 3-point range. Coleman, Munoz, McKoy, Beattie, and Akira Jacobs all hit at least one triple in the first half alone. Davis only went 3-for-8 (37.5%) in contrast.

"That always helps," Hawaiʻi Head Coach Eran Ganot said of the nine made triples. "We've been looking for some of those performances."

With UH down, 31-30, with 4:03 remaining, McKoy and Beattie buried back-to-back triples to put UH in front for good. Coleman then stung the Aggies with a buzzer-beating triple of his own to make it 45-35 UH at halftime.

"I felt like I wanted to fill in JoVon's footsteps," Coleman said of that buzzer-beater. "It felt good."

"JoVon makes those shots, but I feel like Noel is good at buzzer beaters, too," Da Silva added of Coleman's triple.

The second half saw UH inflict more damage on UC Davis. They scored the first six points of the second half and never looked back.

Davis made multiple pushes after UH extended its lead to 17 with six minutes remaining. Despite committing only three turnovers in the second half -- five overall -- they were not as efficient from 3-point range, going 2-for-13 (13%).

Kody Williams joined the 3-point shooting party and made a triple of his own; Jacobs and Coleman made extra triples to total 12 out of 20 attempts (60%).

UC Davis cut the gap down to nine with under two minutes to go, but that was the closest they could get.

UH made their free throws down the stretch, and da Silva added one last and-1 field goal with 21 seconds left for the final arithmetic. After nine turnovers in the first half, UH cleaned things up with only five turnovers committed to total 14 overall.

UH improves to 6-7 in Big West play and 14-11 overall. They are now tied for sixth place with UC Santa Barbara. UH will now hit the road for two games starting against Cal Poly on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. HST, and on Saturday, Feb. 17 against UC Santa Barbara at 11 a.m. HST. You can listen to both games on ESPN Honolulu.