Dribble, pass, score … repeat

Hawaii center Stefan Jovanovic looked around from his perch in the post. There was nobody at eye level.

But Jovanovic by no means was going to let his guard down, emblematic of the Rainbow Warriors’ focus and execution in a wire-to-wire 77-48 blowout of Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

“You have to understand there are five little guys running around you, which is even worse than having a 7-6 on you,” Jovanovic said. “It’s much harder to play when there are five guys trapping you than one big guy staying behind you.”

UH (10-2) conjured up enough respect for the winless and undersized Delta Devils (0-14) of the SWAC to shoot 56.4 percent from the field and maintain its best start to a season since 2004-05.

The Rainbows assisted on 24 of their 31 made field goals and 12 players scored to create a feel-good vibe in their last game of the 2015 calendar year. UH’s last game before Big West play begins is Saturday against Howard (7-7).

UH, which was coming off much more meaningful game against Auburn in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, got off to a hot start against the toothless Devils and never really looked back.

“That’s the next step for us,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of his team’s edge. “You’re constantly … fighting human nature.

You get fired up for these games in the Diamond Head, and then teams all over have this letdown afterward. And so hopefully part of it has been our constant theme and routine of, ‘The biggest game of the year is the next game. Respect all, fear none.’”

Wing Aaron Valdes broke out of a shooting slump early with several baskets in transition and led the way with 17 points and six rebounds, while forward Mike Thomas added a season-high 16 points on 8-for-9 shooting to go with six boards. Point guard Roderick Bobbitt had five points, five rebounds and five assists in 19 minutes.

The Rainbows led by as many as 28 points in the first half and boosted it to 38 in the second before the Devils’ reserves narrowed the gap some against the “Hawaii 5-O” bench mob, which was inserted for much of the final 10 minutes. The 5-O gang still managed to circulate the ball and score several times.

The loudest cheer of the night from the crowd of 3,570 came when reserve guard Dyrbe Enos got his first 3-pointer of the season to bounce through from the corner for a 67-32 lead. Enos hit two 3s, while fellow local boy Zach Buscher hit two baskets, a personal best.

The starting group ate it up from the sideline in similar fashion to a blowout of Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 2.

“I think it was just a testament to the camaraderie on this team,” Thomas said. “We’re all best friends and it’s great to see everybody go out there and contribute. … We want guys like Dyrbe, Brocke (Stepteau), Zach … to get in there, have fun and go play. They work so hard in practice to make us better.”

UH’s 29-point margin of victory was a season high, surpassing the differential of 28 against Nicholls State on Nov. 22.

The Delta Devils shot just 32.3 percent from the field as they wrapped up their nonconference schedule without playing a single home game.

Coach Andre Payne spoke of UH’s significant size advantage going into the game, and it bore out as UH won the boards by 10 and blocked nine shots, nearly double its previous season best in swats. The Devils topped out at 6 feet 6, as their two largest players were scratched from the lineup.

Starting big man Stefan Jankovic scored eight on 3-for-3 shooting. Combined with Thomas and reserves Jovanovic and Sai Tummala, the UH frontcourt shot 16-for-20.

MVSU’s leading scorer for the season, guard Marcus Romain, was held to two points on 1-for-7 shooting. Vacha Vaughn led the Devils with 15 points, but no other player scored more than six for the visitors.

UH’s Thomas reached his season-high mark in the first half with 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting, as UH led 43-16 at halftime.

HAWAII 77, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE 48

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 43, MVSU 16

3-points goal — MVSU 1-11 (Surles 1-2, Romain 0-1, Langura 0-1, Phillips 0-2, Young 0-2, Williams 0-3). Hawaii 6-21 (Enos 2-4, Tummala 1-1, Drammeh 1-1, Bobbitt 1-4, Valdes 1-4, Stepteau 0-1, Fleming 0-2, Filipovich 0-2, Cornelissen 0-2). Steals — MVSU 8 (Vaughn 2, Alex 2, Romain, Henry, Love, Young). Hawaii 7 (Bobbitt 2, Smith, Valdes, Filipovich, Jovanovic, Drammeh) . Blocked shots — MVSU 1 (Henry). Hawaii 9 (Jovanovic 3, Jankovic 2, Valdes 2, Bobbitt, Thomas). Turnovers — MVSU 16 (Phillips 4, Romain 2, Young 2, TEAM 2, Vaughn, Love, Strother, Surles, Whitfield, Williams). Hawaii 17 (Smith 4, Filipovich 3, Bobbitt 2, Tummala 2, Thomas, Valdes, Jankovic, Enos, Jovanovic, Drammeh). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Deron White, Kurt Walker, Ryan McCarty. A— 3,570