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Rainbow Warriors win 73-66 at Boise State

The shorthanded Hawaii men’s basketball team shocked Boise State 73-66 today at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho.

The Rainbow Warriors (13-9, 4-6 Western Athletic Conference) shot 58.7 percent from the field and won for the fourth time in five games. UH also avenged a 24-point loss to the Broncos on Jan. 8 in Honolulu.

Boise State fell to 12-10 and 5-5 in the WAC.

UH played without its top scorer, junior guard Zane Johnson (14.6 ppg), who made the trip but didn’t play because he wasn’t cleared with concussion-like symptoms suffered in UH’s previous game against Utah State. The team was also without reserve freshman forward Trevor Wiseman, who wasn’t brought on this part of the road trip for academic reasons.

The remaining Rainbows made up for it. Senior forward Bill Amis led UH with 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting, while sophomore center Vander Joaquim added 11 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Miah Ostrowski had another effective game off the bench with 12 points and eight assists in 38 minutes. Joston Thomas had 16 points and nine rebounds.

Hawaii won consecutive WAC road games for the first time since 2006, also the last season they won at Boise State. Today marked the last regular-season meeting between the teams before the Broncos head for the Mountain West Conference.

Gib Arnold’s team committed 20 turnovers compared to BSU’s eight, but made up for it with the sizzling shooting and a 36-24 rebounding advantage. Amis and Joaquim combined for seven blocked shots.

BSU managed just 41 percent shooting. Daequon Montreal had a team-high 17 points for the Broncos.

UH led by 10 in the first half, but the Broncos rallied to go up by one. The Rainbows took a 29-28 lead at halftime on a Dominick Brumfield putback.

In the second half, UH hit its first three 3-point shots and built a 15-point lead. They held on against a late BSU push to get the margin back into single digits.

Hawaii continues its road trip on Saturday at Idaho. Both Johnson and Wiseman could be available for that game.

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