Hawaii makes a Christmas comeback

Count on this: Count out the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at your own peril.

The Rainbows continue to thrive through adverse situations, as their 79-67 comeback win over Auburn underscored in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic third-place game on Christmas at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The NCAA issued the Rainbows and new coach Eran Ganot severe sanctions on Tuesday, just before the start of UH’s marquee tournament, based on its 26-month investigation of ex-coach Gib Arnold. But Hawaii (9-2) keeps finding the means to end on top of the opposition on the court.

UH got a second straight 30-point game from point guard Roderick Bobbitt, who shot a career-best 6-for-7 from long range en route to all-tournament team honors. Before an afternoon crowd of 4,022, the tournament host closed out Auburn with a 28-7 run after trailing by nine with 9:25 to go.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” said Bobbitt, who scored 32 in a three-point loss to eventual tournament champion Oklahoma in Wednesday’s semifinals. “We know we’re the only ones who can beat ourselves. We gotta stick together through the tough times. Everything is not going to be smooth in life. It’s a bumpy ride, a bumpy road. We’re going to get through it. We’re a team. We fight to the end, that’s what I like about this team.”

Bobbitt shot 8-for-13 from the field and 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, including the go-ahead free throws with 6:14 left. Forward Stefan Jankovic added 21 points and eight rebounds.

It was the second straight year Hawaii finished third in the DHC. The Rainbows won on Christmas Day for the third straight year and improved to 5-2 on Dec. 25 in seven years of the tourney.

“Pleased and proud of our guys to fight through some things during the course of the event, and within games,” Ganot said at the postgame press conference. “Merry Christmas everybody too, by the way.”

Auburn of the SEC, coached by the charismatic Bruce Pearl, dropped to 6-5.

Hawaii committed just two of its 11 turnovers after halftime.

The ’Bows trailed by one at the break and gave up a layup to Kareem Canty to open the second half. UH forward Mike Thomas then drove baseline for an emphatic two-handed flush in traffic, kicking off an 11-0 Rainbows run. Bobbitt hit three straight baskets during the spurt, including two 3-pointers, to help build a 40-32 lead.

Auburn guards Canty and Bryce Brown combined for 42 points and shot their team back in it, many times with difficult jumpers off the dribble.

Horace Spencer rejected a UH lob to Thomas and ripped down the ball with two hands in one impressive motion. The Tigers kept it going after Spencer’s momentum-turning play, claiming a 60-51 lead when Canty beat the shot clock on a contested 3 with 9:25 to go.

After UH fell behind 60-51, backup forward Sai Tummala kicked off the dramatic game-closing run with a four-point play, getting fouled as he swished one from the top of the arc.

“That was huge. That was an underrated part of the game,” Ganot said. “We took a haymaker against Oklahoma, we took a heck of a haymaker today in the second half. And we responded again.”

After Canty (22 points, eight assists, seven turnovers) hit a pull-up 3 to cut UH’s lead to 69-67 with 2:27 to play, Ganot’s team scored the last 10 points of the game, including a dagger 3 by Bobbitt with a little over a minute on the clock.

“The next step for us, obviously, is to stay away from haymakers and not get in those situations,” Ganot said.

Pearl was upset with several calls over UH’s massive run, earning a technical with 5:29 left. But Pearl, who coached his Wisconsin-Milwaukee team to a hard-fought win at UH a decade ago, stopped to offer words of encouragement to Ganot and some UH players in the postgame handshake line.

Asked about the free-throw disparity afterward — UH shot 25-for-34, compared to 9-for-13 for Auburn — Pearl was even-tempered.

“They did (shoot 21 more) and you know, what you do as a coach is you worry about things you can control,” Pearl said. “To do anything other than that would be to take away from Hawaii’s victory. It’s a great team that made the plays they had to make. It was an honor competing against them. The fans were great, it’s a great environment, a great tournament and from that standpoint that’s really all I can say.”

Behind Bobbitt’s scorching effort from deep, UH shot 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) on 3s as a team. Jankovic went 3-for-5, helping make up for the fact that no other UH player scored more than six.

UH is off to its best start at this point of the season since the 2004-05 team went 10-2. The ’Bows can better that before Big West play with two more nonconference home games coming against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday and Howard on Jan. 2.

“It’s just like last year with everything that we went through before the season even started,” Jankovic said. “People didn’t really give us much credit and give us a chance and we came out, we surprised people (12-3 nonconference record). It’s pretty much the same group minus a couple guys. New coaching staff, a couple new players, but the same core group of tough guys. We persevere.”

BYU 84, Northern Iowa 76

HONOLULU >> Chase Fischer scored 26 points and Kyle Collinsworth added 12 points, 17 rebounds and six assists to lead the Cougars over the Panthers in the fifth-place game of the Diamond Head Classic Friday.

The Cougars (9-4) shot 50 percent (28 of 56) from the field and had five players score in double figures. Zac Seljaas had 12 points, Nick Emery chipped in 11 and Kyle Davis 10.

Fischer shot seven of 14 from the field and made four 3-pointers two days after scoring a career-high 41 points against New Mexico Wednesday.

Fisher, Emery and Collinsworth combined to go 16 of 16 on free throws. BYU shot 19 of 21 from the foul line and outrebounded the Panthers 42-27.

Matt Bohannon scored 21 points and Jeremy Morgan had 19 to lead Northern Iowa (8-5).

BYU led by as many as 15 points and held a 38-28 advantage at halftime.

Washington State 82, New Mexico 59

HONOLULU >> Josh Hawkinson and Ike Iroegbu each posted a double-double, and Washington State beat New Mexico 82-59 for seventh place in the Diamond Head Classic on Friday.

The Cougars (8-4) never trailed and led by as many as 25 points to snap a two-game losing streak.

Hawkinson, a junior forward, had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Iroegbu, a junior guard, added 17 points and 11 assists.

Que Johnson scored 14 points for Washington State, which shot 54.2 percent from the field and 11 of 20 on 3-pointers.

Tim Williams scored 16 points, Elijah Brown had 15 and Jordan Hunter 10 for the Lobos (7-6), who dropped their fourth straight game.

New Mexico was 0 of 10 from 3-point range.

HAWAII 79, AUBURN 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 — Auburn 30, Hawaii 29

3-points goal — Auburn 12-29 (Brown 6-12, Canty 5-14, Harris 1-1, Lang 0-1, Granger 0-1). Hawaii 10-22 (Bobbitt 6-7. Jankovic 3-5, Tummala 1-3, Valdes 0-3). Steals — Auburn 4 (Canty 3, Lang). Hawaii 5 (Bobbitt 2, Valdes 2, Jankovic) . Blocked shots — Auburn 2 (Spencer, Bowers). Hawaii 5 (Jankovic 2, Jovanovic 2, Valdes). Turnovers — Auburn 16 (Canty 7, Bowers 3, Brown 2, Harris, Keim, Granger, Waddell. Hawaii 11 (Bobbitt 4, Jovanovic 3, Smith, Valdes, Jankovic, Fleming). Technical fouls — Auburn 1 (Team). Officials — Larry Spaulding, Ken Ditty, Rick Batsell. A— 4,022