Zigmars Raimo is not an adept builder like his father, but the Hawaii basketball forward knows how to lay the wood.

“He build our house when he was 18,” Raimo said with his Eastern European accent. “Garage, everything, he build with his own hands. I tried that, but I didn’t really like that. I don’t know why, but I was just more into the basketball than what he’s doing.”

The stocky Latvian, at first blush, is easier to project in a hard hat and toolbelt among girders instead of as a lunchpail guy on the hardwood.

Then the 6-foot-7 sophomore has a game like Saturday. Raimo was pressed into increased action due to extended absences of co-captains Mike Thomas (injury) and Gibson Johnson (fouls) and played a career-high 33 minutes of UH’s 74-69 win at UC Riverside. It allowed the Rainbow Warriors (15-10, 6-6 Big West) to sweep their two-game road trip and claw back to .500 in conference play.

No one will confuse him for his countryman, New York Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis, but “Rhino” showed he has value separate from “The Unicorn.”

“I’ve always said, some of the stuff he does doesn’t show up in the box score,” coach Eran Ganot said. “I even said it after last game, when he actually did show up in the box score.”

Thomas, who is classified as day to day for Thursday’s home game against Long Beach State, walked past Raimo during a recent interview, remarking, “Mini triple-double in that game. Six, five and five, baby.”

Raimo smiled about the rare attention and the change of fortune; he went whole swaths of the nonconference season with the “DNP” (did not play) designation in box scores. His previous season high was 16 minutes in UH’s 62-61 win at UC Irvine two days prior. If Thomas can’t go against LBSU, a team that doesn’t shy from contact, Raimo’s physicality will be valued all the more.

But until recently, Raimo’s bruising style was usually limited to chest bumps from the bench and scrimmages in daily practices.

“He’s probably my least favorite to block out, by far,” freshman wing Samuta Avea said. Assistant coach Marlon Stewart, who works with the big men, noted Raimo gets in the occasional lick during post drills. Even with padding.

His physicality extends to weight room sessions; this role player prefers stacking plates to plate lunches.

“Zigmars understands his strength is actually his strength. You see him on a squat rack,” Stewart said. “That’s what he’s able to do, is drive guys back, move guys. … He’s a hard guy to move when he decides you’re not going to move him.”

His knack for beating his man to prime location on the court — “doing your work early” in team lingo — allowed him to set up shop and kick back out to Sheriff Drammeh, Leland Green, Jack Purchase and Brocke Stepteau, helping UH to the program-tying mark for 3s in a game, 14.

“He really did things like roll hard, found his spots in the middle of the zone, and did all the little things that you don’t always see, to help make everyone else’s jobs easier,” Stewart said. “And to give us 33 minutes of that on Saturday, it’d be hard to win without that.”

His five assists surprised many, but not Raimo. He was used to racking up dimes with his club team in Riga and with the Latvian junior national teams.

“That’s basketball. That’s the beauty of the sport. I like that,” he said.

The second Latvian in program history (Davis Rozitis was the first) thinks often of his hometown of Madona and makes it a point to call his parents and sister late at night so he can catch them in the morning with the 12-hour time difference. His father, Edmunds, now constructs buildings in Finland.

Raimo gave them quite an update over the weekend. This was not long after he bounced around in exhiliration in the Riverside visitors’ locker room, careening into teammates and coaches — “That was probably the hardest hit I’ve taken from him,” Stewart said. Then Raimo slumped over, exhausted; he was used to giving maximum effort in shorter spurts.

“I was tired. But I was really happy that we won, because if we would lose that game, I would be really mad because I played a lot of game,” Raimo said. “Now I know what I need to work on, because I shot two shots in the game in 33 minutes … real low. I need to get used to playing more and shoot more shots and be me, because I know I can be really good player if I keep working hard. I know I can help this team a lot.”

Zigmars Raimo can build on this.