UH looks to rest up for North Carolina

Three hotly contested games to open the 2016-17 season meant the Hawaii basketball team needs some cooldown time heading into Friday’s marquee matchup against powerhouse North Carolina.

In a mostly deserted Stan Sheriff Center early Tuesday morning, UH coach Eran Ganot was unequivocal following a 64-63 edging of Florida Atlantic.

“Right now rest is the No. 1 priority,” he said. “Three games in four days. We played at 9, 5, and 11:15, which is really unusual.”

The rest of Tuesday was designated a rest and classwork day. UH players could sleep better knowing that a few days after failing to come up with a clutch bucket against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, they made the next opportunity count.

The Rainbow Warriors have their first signature moment of the season: Gibson Johnson posting up FAU center Ronald Delph and using guile to sneak the ball past the bigger defender for the deciding hoop with 6.3 seconds left.

Then they spun forward what SIUE did to them a few days prior: get a stop on a last-second look.

After a halfcourt timeout with 2.2 seconds left, FAU guard Frank Booker’s contested shot from the top of the arc fell short. There was some contact on the play, but no whistle came, and the late-night “Black-out” crowd of 1,478 celebrated UH’s latest last-second win in the nationally televised ESPN College Hoops Tip-off Marathon.

With that, the ‘Bows went 2-1 in their season-opening Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic. It allowed them a measure of confidence heading into Friday’s marquee matchup with the No. 5 Tar Heels, who beat Big West preseason favorite Long Beach State 93-67 later Tuesday.

“It’s big for us,” forward Noah Allen said. “We got a win streak going, two games. Hopefully we can enjoy this. But we got North Carolina on Friday. Gotta be ready.”

The tenor of the tournament could’ve been decidedly different had UH’s inexperienced team not rallied late in the last two games against Texas State and FAU.

Against the Owls (0-3) of Conference USA, UH went from up four to down four in a matter of crunch-time moments.

The 6-foot-8 Johnson got scored on by guard Nick Rutherford, but came right back with a quick post up on the 7-foot Delph, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds on 10-for-13 shooting. Johnson hit Delph with a shoulder-shimmy and swept across the lane for the bucket plus the foul with 49.6 seconds left. He calmly converted the three-point play to cut FAU’s lead to 63-62.

“You take pride in being able to execute down the stretch,” the junior college transfer said. “We weren’t able to do that the first night, did that a lot better last night. We missed some shots we usually make, but keep plugging along and those shots will fall.”

Play was ragged for much of the tournament and UH had plenty of ball-control problems, which only figure to get exposed further against UNC. But the late-game response was what made Ganot the most proud.

“Think about last year,” Ganot said of the 76-75 win over Nevada in the Tip-off Marathon. “Nevada hit a dagger. And if we hung our heads, we would’ve have had an outlet for a layup by (Roderick) Bobbitt, who made a huge play. (This time) there was more time on the clock so we were able to call timeout and gather ourselves, but our team wasn’t hanging their head.”

FAU had a chance to extend its one-point lead, but Rutherford missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw with 23.3 seconds left.

After a timeout, Johnson came out to set a ball screen for point guard Sheriff Drammeh, then quickly slipped back into the post and got deep position. He faked a pass to Jack Purchase in the corner, took a drop step to his right, spun back to his left and put in the winner over Delph’s outstretched arms. After halftime, Johnson shot 5-for-6 for 11 of his 13 points.

Owls coach Michael Curry tipped his cap to UH and took no issue for the lack of a call on Booker, who appeared to try to sell contact.

“They defended it well,” the former NBA player said.

Texas State routed SIUE 86-58 Monday, meaning the Bobcats of the Sun Belt claimed the Rainbow title at 2-1 — losing only to Hawaii. They won it by virtue of a three-way tiebreaker for fewest points allowed. Bobcats forward Kavin Gilder-Tilbury was named tournament MVP.

Allen (15 points, 11 rebounds Sunday) and Drammeh (13 points) were named to the all-tournament team, along with Delph, SIUE’s Tre Harris and Texas State’s Nijal Pearson.