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With a second-half display fashioned from an interior redesign, the University of Hawaii basketball team surged to Friday night’s 83-50 rout of Hawaii Pacific in SimpliFi Arena.
The season opener in the newly renamed center also served as a re-branding for the Rainbow Warriors, who were replacing an entire starting lineup.
After an uneven first half, the Warriors returned to their past form, with an inside-out approach, extra passes, and side-to-side movement. “That’s who we’ve always been,” said Eran Ganot, who is in his sixth season as the Warriors’ head coach.
The ’Bows, who opened with a three-guard lineup, overcame self-inflicted offensive glitches to take a 30-25 lead into the intermission. And then they emphasized the inside-first pattern in a 53-25 knockout second half.
Mate Colina, the game’s tallest player at 7 feet, produced personal bests with 17 points and six rebounds. James Jean-Marie, who grew up in Montreal, was tres bien. Jean-Marie, who rotated with Colina at the five position, scored 21 points and suctioned 11 rebounds, including four off the offensive glass. In one sequence, 6-foot-8 Jean-Marie connected on a standing reverse layup, and then swished a 3 from the top of the key.
“I thought (Colina) and James set the tone in the interior in the second half,” Ganot said. “We weren’t doing a good job going to them in the first half. We always play inside-out and share the ball. That didn’t happen in the first half.”
Colina credited his active play to an offseason program in his native Australia and return to health. Ganot said Colina had suffered a “setback” just before expanded training began. But Ganot praised Colina’s work in recent practices.
Jean-Marie said he spent the past two years trying to expand his range. “I believe I’m more than a five man because I can play outside and do a lot of things,” Jean-Marie said. “I’ve been working on my game the past two years, just extending my game as far as shooting the ball and stuff.”
HPU coach Darren Vorderbruegge acknowledged the Sharks were undermanned in the low post. Vorderbruegge said one forward suffered a preseason injury, another opted out. He said he moved a four to the five, and threes to the four. “They exploited that well,” Vorderbruegge said.
And when the Sharks’ collapsed their defense, even going from man-to-man to zone, the ’Bows found their aim from outside. After missing all nine 3-point shots in the first half, the ’Bows were 6-for-11 in the second half. Casdon Jardine, the newly named co-captain, swished all three of his 3s after the intermission. Justin Webster, Junior Madut, Noel Coleman and Biwali Bayles also found success on ball-screen drives.
“I thought we looked fatigued physically,” Vorderbruegge said. “We were down five at the the half. I looked up and we’re down, 46-31. We were down 15 really quick, then we looked tired mentally. … I thought when we came out, we were ready, but we couldn’t sustain it.”
With a clinging man defense that sometimes expanded into a full-court press, the ’Bows pressured the Sharks into 21 turnovers. The ’Bows scored 18 points off HPU turnovers, commanded 44 points in the paint, and raced to 16 points on fast breaks. The ’Bows also built a 44-28 advantage on the boards.
UH used 13 of 14 players, with only Bernardo da Silva, who returned to practice a few days ago after recovering from an ailment, as the only DNP.