Hawaii suffers first loss at the hands of Nevada

All unbeatens are not created equal.

Two teams that began the night without a blemish in the loss column ended it on diverging paths, as Nevada gritted its way to a 67-54 road win over Hawaii in front of a “Greenout” crowd of 4,579 on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

On paper, the defending Mountain West champions (6-0) represented the Rainbow Warriors’ biggest test in a stand-alone home game this season.

“You gotta give them credit,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Good ballclub, I think on the cusp of the Top 25 coming in, and should be in the Top 25 on Monday. Very potent, creates problems on both ends.”

Lots of problems.

Perhaps not coincidentally, UH (3-1) posted season worsts in … just about everything on Friday.

“There was a lot of things we didn’t do very well,” said point guard Brocke Stepteau, who rattled off foul trouble, turnovers, and shooting from the field and from the free-throw line. “After all those things, we still had a chance to win the game. We just gotta keep working on those things and just get better.”

Nevada point guard Lindsey Drew helped turn back a late UH run, scoring all of his eight points late.

UH’s team assist count of nine was especially out of character, as UH was forced into several tough shots at the end of the shot clock. Stepteau bailed UH out on late-shot-clock possessions three times.

“They’re an athletic team, a big team,” Stepteau said. “Their smallest player most times was 6-5, so they can switch a lot of things. That takes away a lot of open looks. … That’s a first time we’ve seen a team like that.”

Stepteau came off the bench to lead his team with 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Leland Green scored nine and Mike Thomas had eight points and seven rebounds.

Stretch shooter Jack Purchase gave UH nothing in the scoring column, going 0-for-7, including five misses — some way off the mark — from long range. He was on the court well after the game ended shooting 3s.

The Pack did what they could not in an early-season game at the Sheriff two years ago — finished UH off.

Nevada’s 3-point shooting did not live up to its vaunted reputation (5-for-17, 29.4 percent). But twins Caleb (22) points and Cody (16) performed up to their standard, their 38 combined coming on 13-for-24 shooting overall. Forward Jordan Caroline added 13.

“This is an especially hard place to win then to win by double digits,” Nevada coach Eric Musselman said. “We did enough defensively. Thought it was our defensive effort more than our offense.”

Foul trouble for Thomas and Johnson set a foul tone for UH. UH scored just 24 points in the first half, but only trailed by 10 even with a Nevada 13-1 run going into the intermission.

“It’s tough having to watch in that situation,” said Thomas. “One thing I didn’t do is lead at that point. You still can be an effective person from the bench, and I kind of hung my head for a little bit. … I trust these guys off the bench to deliver.”

Sheriff Drammeh scored on a drive to make it a four-point game with eight minutes left. Then, Drammeh was tagged with a flagrant 1 foul and the Pack scored three points on the extended possession.

Stepteau countered with a floater, but Drew jab-stepped into a 3-pointer, all net.

In a big sequence, Purchase airballed a wing 3 and Drew dribbled into one, good from the top of the arc with six minutes left.

“He made big plays,” Ganot said of Drew, crediting him for the change in momentum.

UH resumes play at home Monday against Division II Adams State.