GAO MI, China >> A Shaquille Stokes pull-up 15-footer bounced off the rim and the Hawaii men’s basketball team fell a bucket short of completing a rousing comeback in an 81-80 loss to the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association on Friday night.

The Rainbow Warriors’ first of four exhibition games against Chinese professionals during the Warriors to Asia tour was a back-and-forth affair that had UH up by seven at halftime. Stokes, UH’s freshman point guard, scored 19 of his 23 points before the break.

But UH trailed by a point after three quarters and yielded a 9-0 run to open the fourth.

Junior forward Hauns Brereton stepped it up in the final period with eight of his 18 points, keying a rally that had the nearly 4,000 in attendance at Gao Mi Fu Ri Gymnasium cheering for both sides.