Even on a holiday, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team could not take any time off, as evidenced Monday night when the Warriors survived a 58-51 scare from last-place visiting CSUN.
A Martin Luther King, Jr. Day crowd of 2,739 in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center watched Noel Coleman score 14 points and JoVon McClanahan add 13 points as UH improved to 14-4 overall and 5-1 in Big West Conference play with its eighth consecutive home victory.
The Rainbow Warriors also got a pair of double-doubles – Bernardo da Silva with 11 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots, and Samuta Avea with 10 points and a career-high 11 boards – to move into a three-way tie for second place with UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine, a half-game behind first-place UC Riverside (6-1).