At the Icardo Center in Bakersfield on Thursday, the University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team found a pot of gold and picked up win number one of the 2024 Big West season, 78-67, over the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners.

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JoVon McClanahan led a pack of four Rainbow Warriors who scored double digits with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and 2-of-3 from 3-point range. McClanahan was followed by 18 from Bernardo da Silva and Justin McKoy each; McKoy was also 3-of-5 from 3-point range before he fouled out, and da Silva was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. Noel Coleman chipped in 11 to round out the double-digit scorers despite going 2-of-10 from the field, but he made all six of his free throws.

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Dalph Panopio led the Roadrunners with a whopping 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Corey Stephenson was next in line with 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting, and Kaleb Higgins chipped in 13 on 5-of-13 shooting.

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Modestas Kancleris drew first blood for Bakersfield with a jump shot 45 seconds in, but UH quickly responded.

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Ryan Rapp drained a triple to put UH on the board and into the lead. UH would score six of the next eight points to take a brief 9-5 lead.

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Back-to-back field goals (one triple) from McKoy followed, while Bakersfield only managed two buckets from Marvin McGhee III and Fidelis Okereke.

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UH managed to keep a steady gap while Bakersfield went scoreless for over three minutes. They efficiently kept their gap above three possessions for much of the rest of the first half. UH also committed only six turnovers and pulled a gap of 14 at one point.

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After the first half, UH led, 41-23, and ended the first half on a 14-3 run in the last four-and-a-half minutes.

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Bakersfield came out firing in the second half, scoring the first five points. UH was not intimidated and kept a good gap.

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McKoy nailed back-to-back triples to keep UH's gap in the teens.

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Bakersfield was not done and went on a 14-2 run to cut the gap to 11, 58-47, with 9:05 remaining. It looked like some alarms might sound, but UH answered after a 4:45 scoring drought.

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McClanahan nailed a layup to end that drought and prevent their gap from going to single digits. That helped the 'Bows keep a double-digit gap for the time being.

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Despite some erratic playing, UH did not fall apart. With under eight minutes remaining, UH went on a 6-1 run to pull their gap back to above 12.

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Bakersfield tried all they could and even cut the gap to nine with under a minute to go, but it was too little too late. Despite 41 bench points to UH's nine, and holding UH to eight made field goals, it was not enough.

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UH stayed relatively solid and made their free throws to walk away with the win.

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UH improves to 1-1 in Big West play and 9-5 overall while Bakersfield falls to 0-3 in Big West play and 5-8 overall. UH will remain on the road and take on the 2-0 Cal State Northridge Matadors on Jan. 6 at 3 p.m. HST. You can listen to the game on ESPN Honolulu.