Eddie Stansberry shredded nets and Portland State’s vaunted fullcourt pressure in equal measure.
When he wasn’t doing damage from outside the arc, the senior shooting guard was leading the fast break and beating the Vikings at their own game in Hawaii’s 83-75 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday night.
The senior shooting guard sank his first six 3-point attempts en route to a career-high 28 points. His 6-for-7 night from long range was the Rainbow Warriors’ best shooting night so far in 2019-20 — 50.9% overall and 55% on 3s in front of a crowd of 3,502.
>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and Portland State.
“We stick to our principles, which is getting inside first,” said Stansberry, who was 8-for-15 from the floor overall for his third straight 20-point game. “When we’ve got Drew (point guard Buggs) getting inside, other guards getting inside, they were all collapsing. Kicking out, they were kind of all over the place. Our rotations, skipping the balls was a good look for us.”
The Big Sky team’s game-long ball pressure — Peery Pressure, after the Vikings’ head coach Barret — is based on intensity and hustle to make up for a decided lack of size. The Vikings (1-2) lost by only 11 at Indiana of the Big Ten in their previous game.
The Rainbow Warriors (3-1) committed 18 turnovers to PSU’s 14, but only two in the final 15 minutes. Points off turnovers, a key statistic for a pressing team, was a wash.
UH now gets its own Big Ten test, as it leaves campus at 6 a.m. today for Champaign, Ill., and Monday’s matchup with Illinois. Head coach Eran Ganot is still away from the team on medical leave, leaving matters in the hands of acting head coach Chris Gerlufsen.
“We knew it was going to be a 40-minute dogfight. They just never stop with their pressure. It’s relentless,” Gerlufsen said.
“The wake-up tomorrow morning won’t seem half as bad now that we got a win tonight. No excuses. We want the opportunity to go on the road to beat a really good Illinois team, a high-major team. Anytime you have that opportunity you want to take advantage of it.”
Senior forward Zigmars Raimo, who shifted to center when UH went smaller to match the Vikings’ speed, contributed 10 points, a season-high 14 rebounds and a personal-best seven assists.
Buggs supplied 13 points, including a layup to maintain the lead with a minute left, and five assists.
Stansberry kept up his hot shooting of the last two games. He also frequently assumed ball-handling duties against the Vikings’ press in relief of Buggs and freshman Justin Webster, who scored four in his UH debut, and freshman Kameron Ng.
At one point in the second half, Stansberry led a fast break himself, right down the middle with wingmen to either side. In some well-played role reversal, he dropped off a pass for his point guard for a layup.
“It was a collective effort. We knew it was going to take everybody to beat the press,” Buggs said. “They like to gamble. Everybody had to be ready to help each other out because we couldn’t leave anybody out to dry.”
After PSU tied it up at 40 at the outset of the second half, consecutive 3s by Stansberry and Buggs opened up a six-point lead that would get no closer than three the rest of the way.
Samuta Avea (12 points) dunked it on a feed from Raimo with under eight minutes left, then PSU immediately committed an inbounding violation stepping over the baseline. Avea caught an inbounds pass from NBA range and drilled it for a 75-65 lead.
Portland State’s best stretch was late in the first half, a 9-0 run with Buggs on the bench with two fouls for much of the Vikings’ spurt. Buggs came back in for a step-back jumper to make it 40-38 at halftime.
“I thought we had tremendous opportunities all night long,” Peery said. “If you look at our shooting percentages (46.9% first half, 32.4% second). We missed shots around the rim all night. But give Hawaii credit they made some big shots and finished us off when they had to. We can play better, we can do better but give them credit.”
