Brandon Jawato’s sharp-shooting first half carried the Hawaii men’s basketball team to a 76-61 victory over UC Riverside tonight before a crowd of about 5,500 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Jawato, a redshirt freshman guard, set a new career high with 21 points on 7-for-7 shooting on 3-pointers, all in the first half. He tied the UH record for most 3-point makes without a miss.

UH (9-5 overall) kept pace with Cal Poly atop the Big West Conference standings at 3-0, with all three wins coming at home.

Behind Jawato’s marksmanship, the ‘Bows shot 10-for-16 (62.5 percent) on 3s as a team and 55.1 percent overall from the field, to 38.9 percent for UCR (4-11, 1-2).

Senior center Vander Joaquim added his fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Junior forward Christian Standhardinger had 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Freshman forward Isaac Fotu added 10 points.

UH took a 40-21 halftime lead thanks to Jawato’s barrage. The closest it got in the second half was 13; UH was never seriously threatened by the Highlanders.

Jawato had a few opportunities in the second half to take more 3s to set a new UH record, but he passed them up to get the ball to teammates.

The ‘Bows now prepare for their first BWC road trip, at UC Irvine and Long Beach State next week.