Just home from the game. Hawaii came out shooting lights out in the opening half and second half, then cooled off. As mentioned, this game would have been put away earlier if we were hitting the FTs. But down 17 or so then Pepper had two huge steals and buckets and before you knew it, we were back in the game. Nail biter at the end, great win.

Caleb Fuller taking the hit for an offensive foul against Hawaii in the final minute was huge also. He anticipated the drive by the Hawaii player and got set just in time outside of the box and took the big hit. Huge play by Caleb!

Very fun game to attend. Decent crowd, especially the students who got loud during the comeback. Plenty of heroes tonight. Angiwe scored well despite a number of athletic big guys. DeBruhl gave us quality minutes, playing tough D, rebounding and dishing done assists off solid drives - which let us sit Manjon with early foul trouble. Manjon was fearful down the stretch. Fuller’s d, Adebayo’s big block. But Pepper was the guy. Two steals in a row to get us back within shouting distance, followed by two HUGE 3’s.

Do need to talk to FT coach. One of those three firm the stretch makes the last 30 seconds much less stressful.

Just looked at box score trying to refresh my memory. At 8:58 they were up 51-41. Milling hit a three at 8:11 to start a 15-2 run over the next 4 minutes to take a 56-53 lead. Pepper had 10 in that stretch, 2 steals with buckets, and 2 3’s.

Beside the FTs, the other nit I had was when we went to the four-out delay set with about 1:20 to go and 4 point lead. As usual, we didn’t get a decent shot and gave them the ball with lots of clock left. I’d like to see us run our standard offense which normally takes 25 seconds and get a better look. Seemed too early to get that conservative

Football might have its Magic man in Tompkins, but Manjon is pure magic, too. A spin move he made in the first half had my eyes popping. His only failing was missing two free throws at the end. He also played great defense on Hawaii's top player, Noel Coleman, holding him to 11 points. I was surprised (and glad) that Hawaii did not get the ball to Desrosiers more often. When he posted up anyone but Anigwe, he was just about impossible to stop. For those who want to check the play by play, ESPN shows it on its game site (https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay/_/gameId/401373709). Hawaii's biggest margin came with 11:30 left in the second half: 50-36.

he had two drives in the second half that were incredible but somehow the ball rolled out. His energy and Pepper’s dagger 3’s really got the crowd back in it.

Agree with your assessment on Desrosiers. Didn’t seem like he ever missed. We were sitting high above our bench so didn’t have a great view of Hawaii’s offense in the second half, BUT, both AgAlum and I thought he was pretty liberal with his elbows when trying to establish position. Sneaky French-Canadian!

The officiating crew was weak, in my opinion. I’ve been happy with the BWC crews this season but this crew never seemed to click. Let alot of contact go inside and then little ticky-tack stuff far from the bucket. They were in the bonus with 12:00 to go which I thought would kill us. Both benches seemed upset and confused.

Yeah, the elbows were flying. OK, homer here, but i thought Hawaii got away with several cheap shots, accidental maybe? Pepper took a big shot to the head in front of the aggie bench, and i think it was Manjon who took it to the eye on the other side.

Milling took a wicked hit to the face also. It looked like they were going to review it but then they didn't. It's maddening when an officiating crew allows a ton of contact near the basket but calls touch fouls around the perimeter.

I was a bit surprised Bora didn’t get any court time. He’s been giving us 4 or 5 good minutes per game recently and I thought that with Hawaiis size advantage, he might be valuable. Also looked like Ba was dressed so he must be close to getting some minutes. I could see him getting some time when we need some outside shooting.

ba and shaw were both suited up.

Something overlooked ; Les subbed offense (Anigwe) for defense ((Adebayo) the last minute knowing Hawaii needed 3’s. Paid off big time with that block!

I didn’t notice Shaw. That’s good. Not that either will play major roles the rest of the way but there might be moments when we need the depth. If nothing else, it’ll be good to have a full roster at practice.

What a fabulous game to watch! We came home and racked it up on ESPN+ to view again. Screw the Olympics! Okay - we watch some of that later.

In the 2nd half, when Hawai'i had pushed the lead to nearly 14 Les took out Pepper. There was a conversation between them - not heated, Les wasn't agitated - but then Pepper walked down the bench looking despondent and I worried the team had lost faith. Ha! Teach me!

I also loved hearing the women's team doing their whoop-whoop while the Ags were on defense. And a huge thumbs up for their being at the game. They must have come directly from arriving on the flight back from the islands.

I found Bob Williams' insights on player rest to be fascinating.

I totally agree about the officiating. Another case of brain transplant at the half. One of the officials was part of the crew that did the Long Beach game and he lived down to that standard. There were a LOT of high elbows. I think I have photos of some. Going through the pictures now. Was so into the game in the 2nd half I forgot to take pictures so I missed some of Manjon's incredible drives to the hoop.

Wow - what a game.

Here’s one of Manjon’s magic moves.

“ I was a bit surprised Bora didn’t get any court time.”
Same here. I think he is the tallest guy we have and seems to shine on defense and grabbing offensive rebounds.

I watched the second half this morning; that was fun! I’m not sure how refs determined to put click at 7:40 after the malfunction since it looks like possession clock stopped.

I would imagine Hawaii fans watching complain about our announcers being homers! Marsh gets pretty amped up during our run

I was paying some attention to March and Williams objectivity since I made such a fuss about the UCR guys. I have to admit that our guys seemed just as biased in rooting for the Ags. That doesn't mean I like it. I've heard some announcers who were pretty balanced in other broadcasts, CSUN's most recently. I agree that the officiating was spotty, but I wondered about Williams comments about rest. Maybe today's sports science encourages more of it, as with baseball pitchers, to avoid injury or shortened careers, but I know that Bob Hamilton rarely used all 12 of this players in a game and frequently only use 7 or 8. (I still retain score sheets I used back then, so I know this for a fact, not just by recall.) One thing no one else has pointed out but was the main story in the Honolulu paper this morning: Hawaii effectively handed us the win by going through a turnover epidemic with about 8 minutes left in the game.

Williams mentioned the turnovers when I watched today. I had forgotten about the ones others than Pepper’s two in a row. But there was a travel down low, ball off the forehead, offensive foul and Anigwe steal….I might have missed a couple more! Points off turnovers 12-0!

What was frustrating at the beginning of second half was the breaks Hawaii was getting. There were 3-4 possessions where we really defended well and they still got 3 points. Forced a bad shot, they got rebound and 3 point play. Anigwe blocks the big guy down low, he retrieved it and hoisted a 3. Those seem to zap our energy…until their sloppy play let us back in.

“the Honolulu paper this morning: Hawaii effectively handed us the win by going through a turnover epidemic with about 8 minutes left in the game.”

I hope they mentioned that we were handing it back to them with our FT shooting, lol.

Here's a link to photos from the Hawai'i game

Hawai'i Men at UC Davis

Manjon has won many games by himself, quite amazing.

Nice photos, Adam! They really capture the athleticism and physicality of the game. I had to laugh at a couple of them: in #4 the Hawaii player looks like he just saw a ghost! and int #10, Murphy has a solid hook on Colina.

Thanks for posting your photos.