The son of a decorated fire-knife performer provided the second-half firepower that led Hawaii to a 62-51 basketball victory over Washington State in Friday night’s semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
Samuta Avea scored 14 of his game-high 19 points after the intermission as the Rainbow Warriors advanced to the championship game for the first time in the 13-year history of this eight-team tournament.
“I’m so proud of them,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in the euphoric celebration. “I know how humbling this game can be. To do something that hasn’t been done, these guys were motivated. They know the history of the program. They’re relentless and they’re hungry.”
The ’Bows appeared to be out of sync in an uneven first half. It was 35-all after the intermission when Avea sparked an 8-0 run. Avea started the surge with a baseline runner and finished it with a jumper from just inside the arc. The ’Bows would not surrender the lead.
“Muta in the second half? Tremendous,” Ganot said of Avea, who was 6-for-9 after the break. “It was all Muta. (The motivation) comes from within. Our job is to support him.”
Avea said: “I have great teammates that give me confidence. Just the way our team works, we’re unselfish, and we play for each other.”
After missing a dunk that was parlayed into a Cougars dunk at the other end in the first half, Avea took what the system — and the Cougars’ defense — offered. “Just playing simple and playing free, that’s the main thing,” Avea said.
Point guard JoVon McClanahan, who contributed 16 points and six rebounds, went from directing the ’Bows’ offense to attacking the heart of the Cougars’ defense.
McClanahan drew six fouls and helped banish WSU’s 6-foot-11 post Mouhamed Gueye to the bench with early foul trouble. McClanahan said he wanted to ease the pressure on UH post Bernardo da Silva, who was assigned to defend Gueye.
“I told Bernardo I would help him out, and get (Gueye) in foul trouble,” McClanahan recalled. “That was my plan from the jump. Go right at their bigs and see what happens.”
Ganot praised McClanahan for his point defense that abbreviated drives into the lane.
“JoVon is the head of the snake,” Ganot said. “We’re a team that fights and scraps and plays with a lot of heart. He’s a massive part of our identity, and the guys feed off that, his fight, his spirit.”
For the second game in a row, the ’Bows were able to defuse a 3-point shooting team. The Cougars entered averaging 9.2 made 3s per game on 37.3% shooting from outside the arc.
John Montgomery, who coordinates the ’Bows’ defense, said most opponents try to double Gueye in the low post, freeing the perimeter shooters.
“We felt if (Gueye) was going to have his points, we didn’t want to give up the 3s,” Montgomery said. “It was a huge emphasis. We worked on it during our (11-day) break. We spent a lot of time having hard hands and running guys off the 3-point line. It’s something we emphasized last week, and it’s been huge for us the last two games.”
The Cougars were held to 3-for-11 shooting from behind the arc. TJ Bamba, who was connecting on 44.2%, was 1-for-3 on 3s. Jabe Mullins, who entered at 52.4% on 3s, did not hit his only trey until the final minute, when the suspense had already ended.
Gueye was held to seven points. The ’Bows won the paint war 32-26.
“That’s a program and staff that we have an insane amount of respect for,” Ganot said of the Cougars. “We felt it would be a physical, hard-fought game. Our defense has been outstanding and clutch late.”
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