Defense carries Hawaii past Colorado

Colorado point guard Askia Booker attacked in transition and saw an open lane to the basket. The athletic ballhandler leapt, cradling the ball in one hand as he prepared to throw down a tomahawk jam.

Hawaii’s Garrett Nevels was having none of it. Not this time.

Nevels came from behind and swatted the ball cleanly and emphatically out of bounds, making one of UH’s several replay-worthy defensive gems in a 69-66 Christmas Day win over the Buffaloes of the Pac-12 Conference before a crowd of under 5,000 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH (10-4) responded to its deflating overtime loss to No. 11 Wichita State on Tuesday with a rousing victory to take third place in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, the best finish for the host school in the event’s six years.

"We ain’t peaking yet. This is business as usual," UH coach Benjy Taylor said. "We still got a lot room to go before we hit our ceiling. I know a lot of people don’t believe that, but they (didn’t) believe we’d be 10-4 too. So you gotta understand one thing, guys: this is a proud group. We’re honored to be in the position that we’re in, playing for the University of Hawaii."

Nevels, who hurt his thumb with about eight minutes to play, was one of a few UH players to play through pain in the win. Point guard Roderick Bobbitt received several stitches over his left eye after taking an elbow in the first half. He returned to make a key late steal on Booker. Swingman Negus Webster-Chan turned an ankle in the second half but returned a few plays later and made the go-ahead basket for UH with 22.6 seconds left.

UH failed to do the little things late in the 80-79 loss to the Shockers, but it put together a complete game this time. Bobbitt made two free throws after his steal for a three-point lead and UH prevented Colorado from getting off a clean tying look on two attempts in the final 17 seconds.

"We just had to dig deep at the end," Nevels said. "We got some key stops, some key rebounds. You know, the loss the other night really hurt us and we weren’t going to let that happen again. We came together and we were able to pull it off."

Freshman Isaac Fleming transitioned into the role of point guard at times during the first two games of the tournament, and did so again once Bobbitt left to get treatment with 8:44 in the first half until he returned with 17:53 to go in the second half.

Fleming was named to the all-tournament team after going for a season high in points (18) for the second straight game. He shot 7-for-11 from the field, including 2-for-3 on 3-pointers, and went for season highs in assists (five), rebounds (six) and had two steals.

"When Rod went down, the only thing that was going through my mind as the point guard was, just keep my team together," Fleming said. "Keep us as one and not break it down because our leader got hurt. So it was just me stepping it up and playing that role."

UH committed only nine turnovers while dishing 15 team assists.

Webster-Chan and Nevels scored 12 points apiece. Bobbitt had nine on 3-for-4 shooting. Center Stefan Jovanovic, who did not play at all in the WSU game, played with an edge off the bench and unveiled a nifty up-and-under move among his 4-for-6 shooting for eight points.

"I think this game, I gave a lot of reasons to play me from now on," Jovanovic said.

It was collectively enough to withstand a season-worst two-point, one-rebound performance by forward Aaron Valdes, who was saddled with three fouls in the first half and was disqualified late.

UH was muscled around in the first half by the larger Buffaloes, as the Rainbows gave up 11 offensive boards and were minus-12 on the glass overall at halftime, when they trailed 33-32.

The rebounding margin stayed at minus-12 the rest of the way.

"I think in the first half we didn’t really come out ready to play," Nevels said. "But I think in the second half we woke up and … we fixed it."

Josh Scott, Colorado’s 6-foot-10, 245-pound center, had 15 points at halftime and finished with 23. Booker had 22 points, but had just one assist against four turnovers. Valdes, Nevels and Stefan Jankovic took turns with strong swats of Booker.

UH countered CU’s size with a crop of early 3-pointers and finished 9-for-18 from deep.

The ‘Bows turned D into O, as well. Nevels blocked a 3, Fleming collected the loose ball and threaded a bounce pass through traffic to Bobbitt for a layup and 56-49 lead.

Hawaii withstood a late-game scoring drought of nearly five minutes, over which CU went on a 12-0 run to go from down 58-50 to up 62-58.

Fleming ended that with a big 3-pointer and followed that up with a putback with 1:12 left to keep his team within a point. UH got Xavier Johnson to miss inside and called timeout.

On the go-ahead play, Webster-Chan got the ball at the high post, faced his man up, drove down the lane to his right and hit a high-arcing floater for a 67-66 lead.

Colorado (7-5) was coming off NCAA Tournament appearances in each of the past three seasons.

"Winning teams make plays, losing teams don’t make plays and right now we’re a losing team because we’re not making plays down the stretch," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "We came here to win a championship and we’re going home 1-2. Reality sucks sometimes, and that’s the reality."

UH can enjoy the 2-1 showing on national television for only a few days before it hosts Southern and Prairie View A&M on back-to-back nights next Monday and Tuesday.

HAWAII 69, COLORADO 66