’Runners await rematch with multifaceted UCI
HENDERSON, Nev. — No team in the Big West Conference has been better than Cal State Bakersfield at stopping DJ Davis. On the other hand, no team has been worse at stopping Justin Hohn.
CSUB’s pair of games against UC Irvine this year are possibly the best examples of a trend that has troubled the Roadrunners all season: They can shut down a team’s primary and often secondary scoring options, but in the process frequently give up season-best games to players further down the scouting report.
Davis, who along with fellow guard Dawson Baker averages just over 15 points per game, has converted more 3-pointers per game than any other Big West player and shoots 39 percent from beyond the arc, helping UCI to a teamwide, conference-high 38-percent mark. But in two matchups against CSUB, he tallied 10 and four points, going a combined 1-for-9 from deep.
Hohn, meanwhile, has scored in double digits just five times in conference play. Two of those games were against the Roadrunners, including, most recently, a 15-point, four3-pointer showing in Irvine last Saturday when no one else on his team made it to double figures.
CSUB has played the Anteaters, regular-season co-champions and Big West tournament No. 1 seed, quite close in 79-75 and 52-44 losses. A slightly more comprehensive defensive showing could be the key to a tournament upset today at the Dollar Loan Center.
Hohn joined the ranks of players like UC Riverside’s Kyle Owens and Cal Poly’s Chance Hunter who have had uncommonly successful offensive showings against the Roadrunners this year. But no CSUN player added to that number Tuesday night when CSUB held Atin Wright to 10 points on 3-for-17 shooting on its way to a 51-47 first-round victory.
“We always know with great scorers, you’re not gonna just stop them from scoring, but you try to limit them, and you also try to make it tough,” CSUB coach Rod Barnes said in the postgame press conference.
The Roadrunners certainly made it tough on Irvine as well in last Saturday’s meeting, forcing 18 turnovers and eliminating all-conference first-teamer Davis and second-teamer Baker, but they had no offense of their own. They only got to the line once in the first half as they fell behind early shot and 0-for-10 from beyond the arc on the night. The ever-reliable Antavion Collum eventually made it to 20 points, but he did so on just 6-for-21 shooting and the Roadrunners couldn’t get within four points of the Anteaters.
One cause for optimism from that game was that, as Rod Barnes put it prior to the tournament Monday, he was trying to get his bench players “as many minutes as we possibly can and still have a chance to win.” The result was Dalph Panopio’s best showing since returning from injury with eight points and six rebounds, but it’s certainly possible that a player like starting wing Travis Henson could have broken out of his slump with more than 18 minutes on the court.
Barnes had said even prior to that game that he liked the chance to see a tournament opponent shortly before playing them.
“I would feel more comfortable playing Irvine now and catching them during this time, then say, maybe Santa Barbara, who’s a little while ago,” he said on Feb. 28, adding that “it’s more familiar for our kids so it’s easier to kind of see the trends of things that have happened.”
CSUB and UCI’s December meeting in Bakersfield is much less applicable to this afternoon’s matchup, primarily because it was the Roadrunners’ last full game with Kaleb Higgins, whom they lost to a torn MCL five days later. It did foreshadow Collum’s breakout campaign, as he scored 20 points for the first time. Fast forward to March and he’s done it six more times.
“(Coach Barnes) trusts me, and him having trust in me makes me build trust in myself,” Collum said Wednesday.
That Dec. 31 game was also surreal in a number of ways. Davis and Baker combined for one point by halftime, as CSUB shot 54 percent and led by as many as 11. Hohn hit a half-court buzzer-beater to end the first half. The Anteaters then rallied in the second period as the Roadrunners got into an absurd level of foul trouble, committing 34 total fouls and allowing UCI to attempt 51 free throws in what became a 150-minute long game.
Somehow, the Anteaters only made 30, but Baker scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes to help them pull away.
Pierre Crockrell also had six assists for UCI in that game; the adept guard averages 5.1 and earned an honorable mention from the Big West.