The Hawaii men’s basketball team eked out a 62-55 win over Division II Hawaii Pacific University in an exhibition game on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Senior guard Garrett Nevels sank a deep 3-pointer for a six-point lead with 1:08 to play and HPU of the PacWest Conference could not rally.

A turnstile crowd of 2,492 was on hand for the unofficial UH coaching debut for acting head coach Benjy Taylor, who replaced the fired Gib Arnold last week. The result of the exhibition did not officially count.

Sophomore forward Mike Thomas had 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting with eight rebounds to lead UH. Nevels added 14 and swingman Aaron Valdes had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Isaac Fleming scored 10.

HPU closed the first half on an 8-0 run, cutting the UH lead to 29-23 at the break.

The Sharks got within 29-26 on a 3-pointer. Shortly thereafter, the Rainbows went on a 10-3 run to go back up by double digits.

HPU got UH’s two big men, Thomas and Stefan Jovanovic, in foul trouble and put together a 13-1 run with those two on the bench, getting to within 52-51 with 4:13 left.

UH caught a break when HPU’s Luke Hager missed an open dunk in the final two minutes and Nevels hit his 3 coming out of a timeout.

UH opens the regular season on Nov. 14 vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic.