A new-look Hawaii basketball team raced past Chaminade 83-55 tonight in Gib Arnold’s first appearance at the Stan Sheriff Center as the Rainbow Warriors’ head coach.
Hawaii forward Joston Thomas scored 25 points to lead four Hawaii players in double figures in the exhibition game played before a crowd of 3,539 (5,646 tickets issued).
Forward Bill Amis finished with 14 points, guard Zane Johnson scored 13 and freshman guard Bo Barnes added 11 for the Rainbows, who shot 49 percent from the field and hit seven of 13 attempts from 3-point range.
Hawaii hit all five of its 3-point attempts in the first half and asserted control early, taking a 42-27 lead over a turnover-prone Chaminade team into halftime.
After Chaminade guard Steven Bennett scored the game’s opening bucket, the Silverswords went without a field goal for the next 6:15 as UH ran out to a 14-3 lead.
UH’s next nine points came on 3-pointers by Barnes. Johnson and Thomas also connected from beyond the arc and the Rainbows’ lead grew to 40-18 with 3 minutes left in the first half.
Chaminade center Mamadou Diarra scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half, but the Silverswords committed 14 turnovers before the break and finished with 20.
Chaminade closed to 58-48 with 12 minutes left in the game. But the Rainbows answered with a 10-0 run with Thomas scoring six straight points, highlighted by a breakaway dunk.
Hawaii opens the regular season on Friday against Montana State in the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.