The Rainbow Warriors defeated the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara 78-75 in a thrilling OT game on Jersey Retirement Night for Anthony “AC” Carter. The Warriors hold onto their first-place standing in the Big West conference with the win on Saturday night, now with a 19-7 record (11-5 conference). 

The ‘Bows, coming off a loss to Cal Poly on the prior Thursday night, were hunting for a win against the Gauchos. At the start of the first half it was a back and forth battle with a total of 10 lead changes and 4 ties alone in the first half. With 9:53 left to play in the first half Hawai’i  was able to lead by 7 over the Gauchos with a score of 20-13, thanks to a 10-2 scoring run led by Issac Finlinson who had 6 points in the span of 1 minute and 27 seconds. However the Gauchos came with a late first half surge scoring 19 points in the last 10 minutes of the half and shooting 63.3% from the floor, leading the game going into halftime with a score of 32-30. 

During halftime, the ceremony for the retirement of jersey #23 in honor of AC Carter took place. It was a fitting ceremony for the return of the basketball legend AC Carter, who remains to be the only Hawai’i men’s basketball player to record over 1,000 points in just two seasons. He is now the only player after Bob Nash (‘70- ‘72) to have their jersey retired in UH men’s basketball history—forever in the Rafters of the Stan Sheriff Center, forever a legend. 

The second half was much like the first: a physical battle on the court. UCSB came out hot, stretching their lead to 8 points, however this run wasn’t enough to stop Dre Bullock. Driving to the basket Bullock collected an AND1 giving Hawai’i the much-needed momentum to stay in this game. Offensive rebounding and Isiah Kerr were the savers for the second half, both stepping up big with Kerr scoring 17 points, 15 of which were after halftime, and the team having 17 rebounds, 6 of which were second chance opportunities and Hawai’i being able to capitalize on those. 

Nearing the end of the second half, the battle was still tense with seven lead changes and UCSB not letting off the gas quite yet. With 7.4 seconds on the clock and Hawai’i down 2, the Warriors had to score quickly to keep this game alive. After an inbound from Dre Bullock, Hunter Erikson drove into the paint, moving past defenders, going for a layup, coming up short but Harry Rouhliadeff was there to save the day and tip the ball into the net and in a big game-time moment, electrifying the home crowd as this game was sent to overtime with a score of 68 all.

The Warriors struck first in extra time with Isiah Kerr hitting a 3-point dagger to get the crowd on their feet as they could see victory in sight. Free throws were the name of the game in overtime for the ‘Bows as half of their 10 overtime points came from free throw attempts. 

UCSB kept in close range and led by one point (74-73) for only 46 seconds as the ‘Bows took charge the rest of the time. In the final seconds UCSB has a chance to win the game and CJ Shaw took a 27 foot three-point jumper as the crowd is deafening, hopes of bringing the game to double OT but misses as the clock expires and the ‘Bows come out on top over the Gauchos with a final score of  78-75.

The ‘Bows will now take their final conference road trip of the 2026 season facing UC Davis on Feb. 26 and Fullerton on Feb. 28, in hopes to still claim their number one Big West spot.