Rainbows island hop to face A&T on Maui

WAILUKU » The prospect of another island hop was met with an approving grin by Hawaii sophomore center Davis Rozitis as he sat at the Kailua-Kona airport.

"The landscapes and the nature reminds me of Greece, some of the Greek Islands I’ve been to," the 7-foot Latvian mused. "It kind of makes you feel closer to home, Europe."

A short flight to Maui later, the focus was off the soothing scenery and back on basketball. The Rainbows will attempt to make War Memorial Gym an adopted holiday hale, just as they did with the Lahaina Civic Center at this time last year in beating Chicago State.

The 4-4 ‘Bows held a late-night practice in preparation for today’s game against wayward North Carolina A&T (4-7) of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The first of two legs of the interisland road swing wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring; the 79-66 win over Division II Hawaii-Hilo on Friday night was in doubt until late in the second half. A convincing win over the A&T Aggies and a three-game winning streak would do much to restore the ‘Bows’ swagger heading into the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

There is a potential trouble spot: UH hasn’t shot the ball particularly well from 3 all season (28.5 percent), and the ‘Bows are sure to have their range tested by a team that specializes in taking away the interior.

The Aggies carry the reputation of packing the paint, daring teams to shoot over them. To counter, Hawaii coach Gib Arnold said he’ll keep a rotation of two shooters — a combination of Zane Johnson, Shaquille Stokes and Hauns Brereton — on the floor at all times.

Arnold has used four different starting lineups over the past four games, and may well toss out something new again. Johnson and Stokes have 33 of the team’s 39 hits from long range.

"I don’t think (against) a team that packs it in necessarily means we’ll have to hit 3s to beat ’em," Arnold said. "We’re still going to go inside. Even a team that does that, they’ve got to stop us in transition and if we can cause stops, get rebounds and run, then it’s real hard to pack the middle."

Saint Mary’s defeated A&T 84-45 in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday by sinking 16 of a whopping 40 3-point attempts. The Gaels attempted only 25 shots inside the arc. Nearly half of the shots taken against ninth-year coach Jerry Eaves’ team this season have been 3s.

Senior guard Nic Simpson leads the Aggies with a modest 10.7 points per game. But nine players average more than five points, and no player averages 24 minutes per game.

Rozitis pledged to be aggressive in the paint against the smaller Aggies, whose tallest player is 6-foot-9.

"Just attack," he said. "If me and Vander (Joaquim) are going to get double-teamed, we are good enough passers to find our guards outside or for inside cuts. All they have to do is knock it down."

Much of that will fall to Johnson, who went 0-for-6 on 3s against UHH — snapping a 31-game streak of at least one made — to see his season average dip to 32.8 percent.

"He’s gotta get more consistent. But I still believe in him," Arnold said.

The big positive against Hilo was Stokes brushing aside recent struggles to score a season-high 21 points on 8-for-18 shooting. Junior post players Joaquim and Joston Thomas added significant firepower off the bench (36 points). Sophomore guard Garrett Jefferson was a pest defensively.

"Everybody came in and contributed," Thomas said. "I felt like everybody on the team had a lot of smiles, rather than the last couple games where everybody looked a little stretched and disappointed about whatever it may be."

It’s been a hectic weekend for senior captains Johnson and Miah Ostrowski. They had final exams in Manoa on Friday before flying out for the Kona game. Then on Saturday morning, they flew back to Oahu for their graduation ceremony. The two flew to Maui to rejoin the team Saturday night for the late practice at War Memorial.