I suspect that the Cal Poly players expect to lose at this point in their season, so they get desperate toward the end. Borra only got 3 points, but had 5 rebounds and 2 blocks and no turnovers. Clearly his best game of the season. Good to see him step up with Anigwe hurt, but I hope Christian is healthy for the last 2 games. I used to play pick up games in the Cal Poly gym. Not sure if its the same as Mott Arena, but it was, indeed, like a high school gym. I was in the National Guard in the 70s and we'd go to summer camp in SLO.
Borra made some BIG plays at the end (I’ll overlook the two missed FTs). A block and a couple key rebounds. Poly seems to bring out the ugly in most teams especially us. Ty struggled from the floor but had big FTs and he’s protecting the ball better. Glad to get out with a win. Good to see Beasley dressed as an emergency player.
Announcers, who again i thought were outstanding, said Angiwe was dealing with turf toe?
This certainly was a GRIND.We just refused to quit and won despite being very short handed.
I was listening to Les in the post-game and he was really pleased with this win. He said that all the injuries made it really tough to practice this week and that there was a lot of uncertainty and waiting to find out if he was going to have enough players to play. He also said that we need some more rest days so some injured players have a chance to try and heal up before SB comes to town and, if they aren't ready, he'll do what he can to meet whatever minimum they say he has to have to play.
Watching the Hawai`i - UCI game, it was clear that the home crowd was fired up. It was the largest crowd of the season for Hawai`i's senior night so the fans came for that and the face off against the league leaders. Irvine lead most of the game, but they began to fade after the 5 minute mark and weren't able to get closer than 3 points. The Rainbow Warriors won without their leading rebounder Bernardo da Silva. They made up for his absence by surprising the Anteaters by starting their raw big man from Senegal, Mor Sec, who had a breakout game, outplaying UCI's Leuchten. Sec got 14 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks. If he keeps it up, the Big West had better watch out come tournament time.
That was a really good basketball game between Hawaii and Irvine. The game was on national tv and it was sold out with 10,300 in attendance. Hawaii has a great fan base and they were really into the game. I sure wish we had that kind of game atmosphere here.
I thought there were terrible calls that went against Irvine in the last 20 seconds when the officials failed to call a held ball twice within a span of about 10 seconds when Hawaii was only up 3 points. It was very clear that Irvine had tied up the ball on both occasions. The first no call resulted in the ball going out of bounds but Hawaii retained possession.
The second no held ball call was even worse and essentially ended any real chance for the Anteaters.. Irvine had clearly tied up McClanahan and he even traveled trying to wrestle the ball loose and then an official called a late foul. McClanahan both FT's and that was the ballgame.
If you get a chance, watch the last 20 seconds of the game and you'll wonder how in the world were those not held balls. It was a great basketball game but I thought it was a shame that the officials spoiled it in the final seconds.
about the calls : I had a similar conversation with a friend who coaches HS basketball. They were down 2 with seconds to go in section semifinal. Get the ball to their 7 footer down low, defense collapses on the ball when he brought it down, players struggle. Whistle, then ball goes in. Jump ball, possession opponent. He complained ‘ref shouldn’t affect game like that at the end, players should’. I countered the players DID affect the outcome by making a great defensive play, and a no whistle would have been the ref affecting the game. Like Irvine wasn’t rewarded for doing what they had to do.
I think that critical fouls and other violations are too often ignored when the game is on the line in the final seconds. How many times have you heard the commentators say, "You're just not going to get that call with the game on the line?"
None of us want to see an insignificant, ticky-tacky, touch foul called but, if the officials were calling the same thing a foul earlier in the game, then it's still a foul later in the game especially when the game is on the line. Why should a foul or a traveling violation or a held ball etc be ignored when the game is on the line?