‘Bows drop Davis

DAVIS, Calif. » Thursday night’s boxscore was a thing of beauty for the Hawaii basketball team, and not just for the final score — a 90-73 win at UC Davis.

To wit:

The Rainbow Warriors shot 58 percent (32-for-55) for the game.

Hawaii outrebounded the Aggies 30-22.

The Rainbows recorded 14 assists against nine turnovers. Flip those numbers and you have UC Davis’ totals.

Points in the paint? 42-32, Hawaii.

Points off of turnovers? 21-14, Rainbows.

Second chance? 9-7.

Fast break? 8-6.

"That’s our best offensive game we’ve played," said coach Gib Arnold, whose Rainbows broke a five-game Big West Conference road losing streak.

"Not the highest points that we’ve scored, but the best we’ve played with getting everybody involved and working the ball around and doing it against two different styles of defense. I’m just so happy with how we shared it."

All five starters scored in double-figures for the Rainbows (13-5, 2-2 Big West Conference), led by Christian Standhardinger’s 22 points. Standhardinger added 10 rebounds, five assists, five steals and two blocked shots.

In all, 87 of UH’s 90 points were scored by the starters, as Isaac Fotu added 20, Garrett Nevels 16, Brandon Spearman 15 and Keith Shamburger 14.

"We just went out there and played our way," Shamburger said. "We haven’t had a game where all five starters got in double-figures. We knew what we had to do and we came out and just did it."

Arnold said he liked his team’s energy for the game’s final 35 minutes. The only issue was UC Davis making a flurry of 3-pointers in the early going. The Aggies (6-14, 1-4) made five of their first seven shots from long range, with Corey Hawkins burying three of those. Midway through the first half, UC Davis led 21-16.

The Aggies still led 25-22 with 8 minutes, 4 seconds to go after Ryan Sypkens made a layup. Then, Hawaii’s defense tightened and UC Davis went cold, missing its final four 3-pointers of the half. Worse, four Aggies turnovers in the next five-plus minutes helped the Rainbows go on a 14-1 run to take the lead for good.

UC Davis hung tough and in the closing seconds trailed 42-34. Shamburger brought the ball up the court and, thanks to some tough Aggies defense, found himself 35 feet away from the basket with time running out.

No worries.

Shamburger buried the very long 3 just before the buzzer for a 45-34 lead at the break. UC Davis never got closer than nine in the second half.

"The play was for me to go to the basket off of a screen," Shamburger said. "They played it different (than we expected) and I just shot it. It felt good when it left my hands."

Arnold singled out Standhardinger for an outstanding game, noting that when the forward sat down with his fourth foul midway through the second half, the Aggies seemed to be on the verge of a run. Standhardinger came back with 8:06 remaining and scored on a layup shortly thereafter.

"It made us a little nervous when we subbed him out with his fourth," Arnold said. "They went on a little mini-run. We put him in there probably a little earlier than I normally would have liked to, but he was playing so well. He was huge tonight. And I expect that from him. We get that a lot with Christian. He’s that good of a player."

It was Standhardinger’s third consecutive double-double and sixth of the season.

UC Davis coach Jim Les said his team keyed on Standhardinger in its game plan, but those plans suffered a blow when Hawaii got balanced scoring from all over the floor.

The Rainbows were playing their second game in a row without 7-foot backup center Davis Rozitis, who was held out for academic reasons. As a result, Hawaii went seven deep for most of the night. Arnold said Rozitis would return to the team for Saturday’s game at UC Irvine.

"We went probably a little bit longer than we normally would with the bigs, but we survived it," Arnold said. "We’ll be at full strength on Saturday."

Halftime —  Hawaii 45, UC Davis 34.
3-points goals — Hawaii 7-18 (Shamburger 4-7, Nevels 2-5, Spearman 1-3, Standhardinger 0-1, Smith 0-1, Valdes 0-1). UC Davis 10-23 (Hawkins 4-6, Funtarov 2-4, Nujic 2-4, Sypkens 2-5, Lemar 0-1, Johnson 0-3). Steals — Hawaii 9 (Standhardinger 5, Nevels, Shamburger, Smith, Valdes). UC Davis 4 (Sypkens 2, Hawkins, Lemar). Blocked shots — Hawaii 3 (Standhardinger 2, Nevels). UC Davis 2 (Hawkins, Johnson).  Officials — Quinton Reece, Steven Espinoza, Matt Tackett.