Hawaii hoopsters too hot for Howard

Howard guard James Daniel III departed the Stan Sheriff Center with his nation-best scoring average intact. Hawaii left nonconference play with something better — another emphatic win and some gaudy numbers to boot.

Wing Aaron Valdes had the third triple-double in recorded program history and point guard Roderick Bobbitt went over 30 points for the third time in four games as the Rainbow Warriors routed the Bison 94-59 heading into Big West Conference play this week.

A Saturday night crowd of 4,288 saw the Rainbows (11-2) never trail as they posted their widest margin of victory of the season and best mark through 13 games since the 2002-03 edition also was 11-2.

Valdes had 16 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists, while Bobbitt cashed in on seven 3-pointers, bettering the personal 3s record he set two games ago against Auburn to finish with 31 points. Guard Quincy Smith matched his career high of 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

“It was a great team win. Everybody contributed, everybody did their part,” said Valdes, who joined Reggie Carter (vs. Yale, 1975) and Bobbitt (Hawaii Hilo, 2014) as the only UH players to record double-digit statistics in three categories in a game. “It was a good tune-up for our conference.”

UH opens at home against Cal Poly on Wednesday and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.

The Rainbows’ two post-Diamond Head Classic games were lopsided share-fests. Against Howard, they matched the 24 assists they dished in a 29-point rout of Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday.

“We just share the ball and run our offense right; we get the shots that we want,” Smith said.

They were also tasked with slowing down the 5-foot-11 Daniel, who came in as the nation’s leading scorer at 29 points per game. The junior ran slaloms around teammates’ ball screens and hit his average exactly, but shot 8-for-24 from the field to do it. Plus, the injury-hit Bison (7-8) had to go deep into their bench. It showed as they shot 30.4 percent as a team and were outrebounded by 13.

“Howard’s a very good team with an assassin at the point of attack,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “(We did) okay. For stretches I thought we did very well. He’s going to get his shots up; your deal is … make them tough, make him work, wear him down.”

Bobbitt drew the main assignment on Daniel and had four steals, but Isaac Fleming, Smith and others also took their turns.

“(UH) must have put four or five different defenders on him tonight … it wore him down,” Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry said. “He was shooting 40 or 50 percent going into the last minutes of the game, (then) missed six or seven in a row. Fatigue shots he can make. I give all the credit to Hawaii and Coach Ganot.”

Howard hit Hawaii with plenty of zone defense. In response, Hawaii hit Howard with a season-high 11 3-pointers to go with a 40-10 scoring advantage in the paint.

The Bison were without their first- and second-string centers as well as their starting shooting guard due to injuries.

Nickelberry’s frustration with foul trouble boiled over late in the first half and he was hit with a technical.

The Rainbows cut down on some lax ball control at halftime, finishing with just two of their 14 turnovers after the break.

UH saw its 50-36 halftime lead trimmed to 10 on a couple of occasions in the second half, including for the last time when Daniel hit one of his five 3s with 15 minutes to play. Then the ‘Bows went on runs of 20-3 and 12-0 to put the team from Washington, D.C., away.

“At the end, it was just a fast-break drill,” Nickelberry said. “We were exhausted, they got out and ran on us. We did not have a lot of options on the bench, though.”

Valdes was at his playmaking best during those runs, finding teammates in transition and in the halfcourt in equal measure. It was an impressive stretch for a player who came in averaging 2.1 assists per game and hadn’t cracked double figures in rebounds this season.

He hit Smith for a corner 3 with 9:12 to play to put him in triple-double territory. Valdes got a round of applause when he checked out a few minutes later.

“It’s great. Derek (Desai), one of our assistant (managers), told me I had one assist to go,” Valdes said. “So I told Q, ‘If you’re open, take the shot.’ I passed to him and he got me the triple-double. Thanks to him for that.”

A nonchalant Smith said: “It felt good.”

Bobbitt was 6-for-7 from deep in the first half and finished 7-for-11, making him 17-for-26 over the past four games.

Bobbitt and Daniel dueled each other evenly in points in the first half (20), but not in efficiency. Daniel was 6-for-14 with four turnovers.