HONOLULU — Isaac Fleming came off the bench to score a career-high 22 points and Hawaii withstood a late push to beat UC Santa Barbara 65-57 on Saturday night.
HONOLULU — Isaac Fleming came off the bench to score a career-high 22 points and Hawaii withstood a late push to beat UC Santa Barbara 65-57 on Saturday night.
Stefan Jankovic added 19 points and nine rebounds, and made a key basket with 41.5 seconds left that gave the Rainbow Warriors a 61-57 lead.
Roderick Bobbitt and Fleming each made a pair of free throws to secure it for Hawaii (13-2, 2-0 Big West), which won its fifth in a row since an 84-81 loss on Dec. 23 to No. 2 Oklahoma.
Hawaii’s leading scorer, Aaron Valdes (15.9 points per game), left the game with a foot injury early in the first half and did not return.
Gabe Vincent made 5 of 9 3-pointers for UC Santa Barbara (6-8, 0-1), with the last one pulling the Gauchos within 58-57 with 3:57 to play. Vincent finished with 17 and Michael Bryson added 16.
Wahine fall
Alyson Doherty hit the go-agead jumper with 2:14 remaining and Cal Davis came back to beat Hawaii 60-58, the Wahine’s first loss of the season.
Hawaii (8-7, 1-1) lost despite finishing 11-22 from 3-point range. Ashleigh Karaitiana scored 15 points.
Morgan Bertsch scored 21 points for the Aggies (9-6, 2-0), who trailed by as many as 11 in the third quarter.