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Hawai’i (14-5, 5-2) at UC-Riverside (14-6, 7-1) – 4:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day goes to the West Coast (well, maybe the Inland Empire) where the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors travel to the UC-Riverside Highlanders. Hawai’i grabbed people’s attention with their first Diamond Head Championship with wins against Pepperdine, Washington State and SMU during Christmas break. Since then, Hawai’i has largely held serve with their only losses coming at Cal State-Fullerton and at UC-Irvine in their last game. Noel Coleman leads Hawai’i with 14.4 points a game.
UC-Riverside had a pedestrian 7-5 out-of-conference record; their only win of real note was against LMU but were tested with road losses against Colorado, Creighton, Oregon and crosstown rival Cal Baptist. Following a loss at home against Cal State-Fullerton, the Highlanders have now won 5 straight games, including a huge road win against UC-Santa Barbara. In their last game, Zyon Pullin hit a game-winning shot with 2 seconds remaining to give UC-Riverside a 74-72 victory against UC-Irvine.