World War II veteran Peter DuPre’ stepped up to the microphone and skillfully played The Star-Spangled Banner on his harmonica, eliciting a roar upon completion from the military personnel gathered in historic Bloch Arena.

Valuing your veterans was a theme that would last to the very end of the Pearl Harbor Invitational. A battle-tested Princeton team drilled the young Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 75-62 on Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

UH (4-5) came up empty in its first two games at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in the all-college era of opponents, suffering consecutive losses under second-year coach Eran Ganot for the first time. UH was previously 8-0 under Ganot coming off a loss.

The ’Bows felt the bite of a rabid version of the Tigers’ legendary offense and fell behind by a season-high 20 points at intermission. A spirited second-half rally cut it to nine, then the Ivy League team recovered and pushed it to as many as 21.

“I think the first seven minutes of the second half is about as good as we’ve played this year,” Ganot said, “and the first 20 minutes was probably about as bad, I’m assuming, as many basketball teams have played, ever.”

UH has two weeks of “mini-camp,” as Ganot called it, to right itself before the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic begins on Dec. 22.

Princeton (3-4), which returned 99 percent of its points and minutes from a 22-win NIT squad, played with all the poise of a veteran group coming off 29.8 percent shooting in a loss to California on Tuesday.

Hawaii, with its host of freshmen and newcomers, did not. At least, not until the second half started. UH shot 33.3 percent and committed eight turnovers before the break.

Forward Gibson Johnson scored a season-high 19 on 6-for-10 shooting and wing Noah Allen bounced back from his worst game as a UH player — a scoreless 0-for-7 night in an 11-point loss to Seton Hall on Tuesday — to record 19, 14 in the second period.

Princeton runs a patient, balanced system by reputation. But the Tigers came out firing, gunning for open shots early in the shot clock. Wing Steven Cook was cooking, hitting five of his first six attempts from downtown and scored 17 of his 21 points in the period.

“It’s Princeton, so you’re worried about their back cuts and stuff like that,” Allen said. “We were kind of playing a little conservative and that opened up their 3 ball. Give credit to them, they knocked down a lot of open shots.”

Brocke Stepteau made a more confident start at the point on the heels of a career-high 17 points against Seton Hall, but he could not stem UH’s problems in ball distribution (four assists, four turnovers). The ’Bows fell behind 10-2, then by double digits and gave up a 17-4 run going into the break to trail 43-23.

After a blistering halftime speech by Ganot, UH found the energy it lacked in the first half. Stepteau got a 7-0 spurt started with a three-point play. Johnson and Allen upped their aggressiveness as the ’Bows made five of six shots and chipped the lead to 10 in a mere five minutes. They committed only two turnovers in the period.

“That’s one of the things that’s been killing us all season, so we gotta work on that,” Stepteau said. “The big thing for us is consistency.”

A Johnson free throw brought the ’Bows to within single digits with 14:44 to play.

Princeton was just too experienced and efficient. It extended the lead back to 14 at the line — the Tigers made their first 13 foul shots — and Cook followed with a dunk and Henry Caruso a 3 to put them back up 19. They made 10 of their first 20 3s (finishing 10-for-24) compared to Hawaii’s 4-for-19.

“We were a little disappointed with what happened yesterday (a 62-51 loss to Cal),” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said. “And then the start of the second half I thought (UH) played very well. We were fortunate to withstand what they were doing and hang in there.”

Seton Hall 60, California 57

The Pirates (7-2) withstood an errant halfcourt heave at the buzzer by the Golden Bears (7-2) to sweep the two-day Pearl Harbor Invitational.

Forward Angel Delgado paced Seton Hall with 16 points and 12 rebounds, his second double-double in as many days in Bloch Arena. Jabari Bird scored a game-high 22 points off the bench for Cal.