Utah just too much for ’Bows

SALT LAKE CITY >> A rare nonconference visit to the mainland for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors was starting to take a turn for the positive at the end of the first half and the start of the second Saturday night.

Against Utah, Hawaii fell behind by 13 before getting its first chance at the free-throw line — with 3:10 left before intermission. Then came the first UH 3-pointer, by Brandon Thomas, a minute later.

Senior Mike Thomas continued the trend by hitting his first buckets from the floor right after half, two of them in fact, as the Warriors cut the margin to five.

Then the game sharply reverted to form — not just in the first half but what has been a historical struggle for Hawaii in Salt Lake City — as the Utes cruised to an 80-60 win in front of a crowd of 13,896 (tickets issued) in the 15,000-seat Huntsman Center.

Hawaii (4-2) has only won one of its 24 chances at Utah.

Rainbow Warriors coach Eran Ganot was philosophical afterward.

“The beauty of basketball, and in life in general, is you have to prove it,” Ganot said. “Today, they proved they were the better team. They beat us handily.

“I thought we had some chances there if we had finished off some chances around the rim,” he added. “I thought we defended well enough and we took care of the ball, but when you don’t put any pressure on the other (offensive) end, it makes it very difficult.”

UH was led by Drew Buggs’ season-high 14 points, while Thomas added 12.

At half, Buggs had 12, while Samuta Avea (six points) and Gibson Johnson (five) contributed for Hawaii. But, with the exception of one bucket by Buggs in the second half, the last 20 minutes were bereft of any offensive production by the trio. Johnson and Avea have family ties in Utah.

“You’ve always got to give Utah credit for adjusting and doing a good job,” Ganot said. “I think the next guys were open and we went to them. Mike Thomas, Jack Purchase, Gibson Johnson are our leading scorers and those three got held out pretty good.”

Utah (6-1) never trailed in the game and broke away from an 8-8 tie with a 7-0 run midway through the first half. The Utes, who were paced by 16 points each from David Collette and Donnie Tillman, pushed the score to 29-16 with four minutes remaining before intermission off four straight points by Sedrick Barefield.

The Warriors reduced the lead to only seven when Buggs swished a 3-pointer with :01 left on the clock.

Mike Thomas, who has been nursing a hurt wrist, came out strong to start the second half by driving into the lane for one score and then getting another tally on an assist from Johnson in the lane.

But Utah scored the next eight points and the lead was back to 47-34 with 15:24 on the clock.

“We’ve got to get tougher mentally, physically,” said Thomas, who added that he was “closer” to being 100 percent. “Individually. It’s just something that we’re working through right now.”

The Hawaii big men at times struggled with the size Utah offered in the paint. UH was outrebounded 46-32 after losing a rebounding battle by no more than four over its first five games.

Thomas went to the floor in a tumble midway through the first half with two Utes defenders and had nothing but a missed shot to show. Johnson later in the first half showed frustration when his efforts in the lane only ended with a jump ball ruling and not a foul.

“You wish you could have stuff like that back. Play again and go harder,” Thomas said.

“We have to get better at handling adversity in the moment,” Ganot said. “We do a pretty good job after the fact — when you have a couple minutes, an hour or a day to think about it.

“That’s the beauty of the game too. You’ve got to keep playing.”