Rainbows roar past Vulcans

This time, the basketball bench mob known as “Hawaii Five-0” got to feel the love right back.

Hawaii’s reserves got some of the loudest cheers of the night — including from the UH starters — as the Rainbow Warriors rolled past Division II counterpart Hawaii Hilo 86-67 on Tuesday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A season-low crowd of 2,154 saw UH (6-1) improve to 6-0 at the Stan Sheriff Center behind a season-high 33 points from Aaron Valdes, who shot 15-for-20 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds to lead a lopsided effort on the interior over the overmatched and undersized Vulcans.

It was the junior’s third career 30-point game, and second against Hilo. He had a shot inside to surpass his career-best 34 set against Cal State Northridge last season, but the ball rimmed out and he was subbed out shortly afterward.

Guard Isaac Fleming registered 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds off the bench. With starting center Stefan Jankovic a pregame scratch with a sore back, reserve big man Stefan Jovanovic scored 10 on 5-for-5 shooting.

All 13 active players saw court time.

“Happy to get a lot of guys some minutes, guys who’ve had great attitudes and practiced well and maybe haven’t got in the game much,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “I think moving forward that development of that bench and some guys getting some confidence and some reps could and should help us down the road.”

UH weathered a subpar effort on defense in the first half and built on an 11-point lead at the break. Another D-II neighbor, Hawaii Pacific, comes to play on Saturday.

Ganot was able to insert his bench mob by the second half’s five-minute mark up by 22.

The group of scout-teamers becoming known for their creative antics on the sidelines had Valdes, Fleming and others on their feet as Niko Filipovich scored a career-high eight, local boys Dyrbe Enos and Zach Buscher added baskets and true freshman Jakob Cornelissen saw his first career action.

UH’s bench piled up 40 points in all.

“It was fun, just knowing they’re getting an opportunity to go out there and display their talent,” Fleming said. “Despite they don’t play that much, they are really good players. So it’s just fun watching them score.”

Added Valdes: “Especially when they’re the ones cheering for us out there and we get the chance to cheer for them when they’re out there.”

In his 32 minutes, Valdes lived in the paint, accounting for much of the 54-18 advantage in points in that vicinity, and was effective on the perimeter, too, knocking down three of five attempts from 3-point country. He routinely found holes in Hilo’s zone along the baseline.

“It was just getting good ball movement out there,” he said.

The game counted officially for UH but went down as an exhibition for Hilo, which remained at 0-5. UH improved to 8-0 all-time in the series, including wins in four of the last five seasons.

UH overwhelmed UHH on the boards — 43-31 overall, and 16-6 on the offensive end — and in ball control, with 12 steals among the Vulcans’ 23 turnovers. Hilo was without two projected starters in the frontcourt due to injuries.

“Giving up 16 offensive rebounds is a lot,” Hilo coach GE Coleman said. “I expected we’d be out-rebounded, but not by that much.

“Turning it over 23 times is what really hurt us the most. Especially against Hawaii, which is so good at turning them into points.”

Valdes poured in 22 points on 10-for-12 shooting in the first half, including three acrobatic putbacks.

Hilo hung around early by hitting seven of 14 3-point attempts in the first half, including a 3-for-4 effort by Patrick Ball. Ball (team-high 20 points) hit one to beat the halftime buzzer and get his team within 44-33.

Hilo, however, would connect only three of 19 times from long range (15.8 percent) after the break.

Fleming lobbed a ball up for Valdes to jam with two hands with 15 minutes to go for a 53-40 lead.

Filipovich hit a corner 3 with eight minutes left for his first points of the season and a 70-48 lead. He added another trey and two free throws to surpass his old career best of five points.

Sai Tummala got his first career start in place of the scratched Jankovic, scoring two points.

HAWAII 86, HAWAII HILO 67

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 44, Hawaii Hilo 33

3-point goals — Hawaii Hilo 10-33 (Lockett 3-4, Ball 3-9, Russell 2-7, Walker 1-2, Farris 1-6, Gahan 0-1, Berinobis 0-1, Saito 0-1, Reyes 0-2). Hawaii 7-23 (Valdes 3-5, Filipovich 2-3, Fleming 2-7, Smith 0-1, Enos 0-1, Cornelissen 0-1, Drammeh 0-1, Buscher 0-1, Bobbitt 0-3). Steals — Hawaii Hilo 6 (Lockett 2, Russell, Farris, Gahan, Reyes). Hawaii 12 (Smith 3, Bobbitt 2, Thomas 2, Valdes 2, Filipovich 2, Fleming). Blocked shots — Hawaii Hilo 3 (Ball, Saito, Reyes). Hawaii none. Turnovers — Hawaii Hilo 23 (Ball 6, Lockett 4, Berinobis 4, Russell 3, Farris 3, Walker 2, Reyes). Hawaii 16 (Bobbitt 3, Smith 3, Tummala 2, Thomas 2, Jovanovic 2, Valdes, Fleming, Stepteau, Buscher). Technical fouls — Hawaii Hilo 2 (Walker, Lockett). Hawaii 1 (Thomas). Officials — Jimmy Casas, Martin Cichocki, Kevin Smith. A—2,154.