UH at UC Davis (2/26/26)

More droughts were relieved!

The University of Hawaiʻi Men’s Basketball team pulled off a gritty victory over the UC Davis Aggies at the University Credit Union Center, 77-73, on Thursday! It was UH's first road win over UC Davis since 2021 and UH's first season sweep over Davis since 2020!

UH improves to 12-5 in Big West play, and coupled with a UC Irvine win at CSUN at the buzzer, UH is now tied for first place in the Big West standings.

Isaac Johnson rebounded from a tough Saturday night against UC Santa Barbara to lead UH with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting! Hunter Erickson came up big with 15 of his own on 5-of-8 shooting; both Erickson and Johnson were 3-of-5 from 3-point range! Isaac Finlinson poured in 13, Harry Rouhliadeff chipped in 11, and Gytis Nemeikša added 10 off the bench.

Marcus Wilson led the Aggies and all players with 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting! Carl Daughtery Jr. had 11 in the loss, as did UC Davis' lead scorer Connor Sevilla. Niko Rocak had 10 points himself with eight of them coming at the free throw line.

Daughtery drew first blood with a triple which led to an early 5-0 lead for Davis! Davis then fell victim to a 7-2 UH run, and the score was tied at 7-7!

Nemeikša buried a corner triple after a jumper from UC Davis' Sevilla to put UH back in front, 10-9. Both UH and UCD stayed close to each other, but UH was the first to turn the tides in their favor!

Back-to-back Erickson triples generated an 8-0 UH run to put UH back in front for good, 29-20! It was punctuated on a Finlinson layup off an Omer Suljanovic turnover.

Davis cut the gap down to four off another Daughtery triple with 4:07 remaining, but UH remained composed! The 'Bows ended the first half on a 12-4 run that was punctuated by a Dre Bullock layup off a Davis turnover. At halftime, UH led, 43-31 with UH's Johnson leading all scorers with 14!

In the second half, UH continued to carry their momentum from that 12-4 run. Rouhliadeff began the second half with a triple on UH's first possession!

Davis did not back off and made multiple pushes on UH! With 16 minutes to go, Davis uncorked a 9-0 run with three consecutive triples from Isaiah Chappell, Daughtery, and Suljanovic! It cut what was a 13-point UH gap down to just four!

UH did not get flustered and scored the next four to put their gap back up to eight, 56-48, off an Erickson jumper. Every time Davis appeared to have some momentum, UH found a way to maintain control.

UH was able to extend its lead back to 10, 72-62, with 3:30 remaining off a Nemeikša layup. That Nemeikša layup was UH's final field goal of the game.

With 1:40 to go, and UH leading 73-68, things got iffy when Nemeikša was issued a technical foul off a contact deadball, but Davis' Rocak was also issued a technical foul for the same reason. The free throws canceled each other out, and UH kept its 5-point lead.

UH's final four points came at the free throw line with both Johnson and Finlinson burying two critical free throws each off of two UC Davis fouls. It was now 77-73, UH!

Needing a miracle, Davis' Wilson went for a layup with four seconds left, but Nemeikša delivered what was the game-sealing block for UH! It was UH's sixth block of the contest to Davis' one!

After nine turnovers for UH in the first half, they cleaned it up considerably and committed just four in the second half while Davis committed five. UH would win the turnover battle, 13-17!

UH improves to 20-7 overall and will conclude their final road trip before the Big West Tournament with the Cal State Fullerton Titans at Titan Gym on Saturday, Feb. 28. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 pm HST, and you can listen on the radio at ESPN Honolulu.