Perimeter defense worries Rainbow Warriors after exhibition

A 23-point exhibition win left the Hawaii basketball team wanting more, especially on one side of the floor.

The Rainbow Warriors put away the BYU-Hawaii Seasiders 97-74 on Thursday night in UH’s final action against another team before the start of the regular season Friday.

BYUH hit 16 3s in the loss, which would’ve tied the UH opponent record had the result officially counted. The Seasiders’ 41 3s attempted would’ve broken that record by four.

UH coach Eran Ganot responded by closing his team’s next two practices to the media and public over the weekend, while urging his players to increase their fire and focus in the days ahead.

“Defensively it was pretty clear: We’re not defending near the level we need to to be successful,” Ganot said. “And we’re still finding our identity that way. It’s a different group of personnel. We’re not as big inside. We have to adjust for some of … our weaknesses there.”

On the positive side, each member of UH’s new starting five — Sheriff Drammeh, Leland Green, Noah Allen, Jack Purchase and Gibson Johnson — scored in double figures against the Seasiders, as did Matt Owies off the bench. UH had 21 assists against 10 turnovers, with Purchase (five assists) and Zach Buscher (four) flashing some passing ability.

Johnson played as the “in” man in UH’s four-out, one-in offense, the role that Stefan Jankovic used to great effect last year. He took the lopsided win against an outmanned opponent in stride.

“I think it’s kind of what you expect from an exhibition game,” said Johnson, a transfer from Salt Lake Community College. “We played well, we had some spurts where we were really good not only on offense but defense, and then we had spurts where we couldn’t execute and were giving up open 3s, and allowing runs. So obviously it’s an exhibition game, that’s why you do those — to work things out.”

The Seasiders reached the Division II national championship game in 2011, but are going through tough times; BYUH is removing its collegiate athletics after this season. With a depleted talent pool, the ’Siders never really threatened the outcome of their final meeting with UH with their long-range barrage, but showed that other teams with a better inside-outside combination could well do that.

“There’s certain things we can do better. Our closeouts, our hands on 3s, our inability to defend penetration, which opens up more 3s as well,” Ganot said. “So I thought from the point of attack, our floor positions, our rotations were close. But close isn’t good enough. It’s the difference between giving up nothing and giving up a 3. So we gotta keep working.”

Ganot indicated that an increase in zone defense from last season is a possibility, though UH won the rebounding battle by 17 Thursday led by center Ido Flaisher’s 11 boards. Frontcourt depth is an immediate concern.

UH saw 6-foot-11 big men Jankovic and Stefan Jovanovic depart in the offseason. In the fall, it lost starting power forward Mike Thomas for the season with wrist surgery. Darryl Matthews, a walk-on at forward, has a balky ankle and has been in and out of practices. And before the BYUH game, freshman forward Zigmars Raimo was announced as suspended through Friday’s opener against SIU-Edwardsville for an unspecified violation of team rules, further cutting into UH’s depth.

“That’s still the case,” Ganot said Saturday. “I’ll leave it at that. Obviously (I) respect the student-athlete privacy.”