Rainbows put away Oregon State for fifth

The difference between good and great was a topic of conversation in the Hawaii postgame locker room.

After the Oregon State Beavers gnawed a 19-point Rainbow Warriors second-half lead down to six in the consolation championship of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Christmas Day, it made for a loud discussion — even after a 79-73 UH win.

"A couple guys got in each other’s face and, you know, (we were) trying to break up things," senior captain Brandon Spearman said after his first career double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. "All the coaches did a good job trying to handle the situation. Everybody sat down and talked. … Everything’s good now."

Nearly a half-hour elapsed after the game before UH coach Gib Arnold and his players emerged from their Stan Sheriff Center locker room for the postgame press conference.

"We were talking about how we ended the game and how we were up 20 and let them get back in it," Arnold said. "And I think that’s a great conversation to have, rather than just, ‘Hey, we won!’ It’s ‘What happens when it’s close?’ And that tells you a lot of character about the team. A lot of guys jumped in and shared feelings about the team. It got a little emotional there."

Despite some poor free-throw shooting (16-for-29, 55.2 percent) which allowed Oregon State (7-4) to creep back in before a crowd of about 3,500, UH continued to get results. The Rainbow Warriors (9-3) won for the seventh time in eight games and claimed fifth place — losing on the first night and winning the next two games — for the third time in four years under Arnold.

After dropping a 62-61 decision to tournament runner-up Boise State in Sunday’s opening round, UH got a meaningful 76-74 win over Saint Mary’s on Monday and beat a Pac-12 opponent for the first time in seven seasons on Wednesday to close out the tournament.

The starting five of the ‘Bows carried the load. Besides another strong tournament game from Spearman, point guard Keith Shamburger had a season-high 10 assists, nine points and six rebounds; guard Garrett Nevels scored 16 and blocked two shots before fouling out; forward Christian Standhardinger scored all of his 15 points in the first half; and forward Isaac Fotu added 17 points despite going 3-for-10 from the free-throw line.

The tournament hosts played inspired for some stretches and held it together for others, making up for the poor foul shooting with some impressive ball control. Hawaii committed only nine turnovers to 17 for Oregon State, and assisted on 18 baskets behind Shamburger’s season-high in dimes against just one turnover.

UH shot 49.1 percent from the field, including 7-for-12 (58.3 percent) on 3-pointers.

"These are all really good things from good teams," Arnold said, looking at the stat sheet. "I love the fact that we had 18 assists to nine turnovers. … That’s a great stat. To do that against a Pac-12 team on the third game (in) a fourth night is special.

"We spent a lot of time back in the locker room and (discussed) where we can go from now. How we can finish stronger. I like the fact that this team just won a game but was worried we didn’t finish strong."

UH has two remaining nonconference games at home, against Norfolk State (8-5) on Monday and Nebraska-Omaha (9-4) on Jan. 3. Then it’s on to Big West Conference play.

"Those two games will be good to just sharpen the axe before conference starts," Fotu said.

At this time last year, UH was 5-5.

"It’s a whole different team," Spearman said. "The coaches are coaching us well. Man, sky’s the limit for this team. I’m looking NCAA Tournament, honestly."

After Oregon State tied the game at 42 early in the second half, UH went on a 23-4 run to build a 19-point lead. But still the ‘Bows had some trouble putting the Beavers away. Oregon State cut the margin to 69-62 with 2:11 to go on guard Roberto Nelson’s jumper.

Shamburger hit a top-arc 3 near the end of the shot clock with 1:20 left for a 74-63 lead that basically sealed it. Standhardinger took a key charge with 28.5 seconds left.

Nelson finished with 22 points.

"Guys are trying to beat you every step of the way," Oregon State coach Craig Robinson said. "And we didn’t figure that out until there were six minutes left and we started playing hard.

"This is the first time we’ve done a trip like this in the middle of the season. It’s hard to play these kind of tournaments, but fortunately we’ve got more games to play, so I’ve got to get these guys back up. But I let them know how disappointed I am, and I want to see how disappointed they are."

Shamburger swiped a pass and hit Nevels with an alley-oop slam in the open court for a 57-46 UH lead with 12 minutes to play.

The ‘Bows got it up to 19 on an open dunk by Fotu with eight minutes left. Oregon State scored the next six points, but backup guard Quincy Smith got a steal and layup to end the mini-run.

Fotu missed the front end of a 1-and-1 foul shot and Oregon State completed a three-point play at the other end to get within 69-58 with 4:07 to go. Fotu’s nightmare day at the line continued with another front-end 1-and-1 miss, but Oregon State turned it over on a lob attempt that time.

Nelson scored on a putback to make it a seven-point game with over two minutes left, but Nevels came back with a midrange jumper.

UH built a 10-point lead late in the first half, but saw it all but disappear at 40-38 by halftime.