Jack Purchase breaks record in rout of UC Riverside

Jack Purchase made a splash in the Hawaii basketball record book.

And following the Rainbow Warriors’ 87-64 dismantling of UC Riverside, it was Purchase who was splashed with celebratory water in a jubilant locker room.

“I’m so proud of him,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of Purchase, who scored 23 points and set the school record for most successful 3s. “You can see how happy his teammates are for him. Look how proud they are of him. He was showered in the locker room.”

In Thursday night’s game, Purchase’s lone basket tied Zane Johnson’s career total of 180 treys. It took 61 seconds for Purchase to become the sole record holder. His 3-pointer extended the ’Bows’ lead to 9-2.

“It was amazing,” Purchase said of the milestone basket. “It was a great feeling. The boys got me the ball to help me knock it down.”

After a season at Auburn, Purchase, who was born and reared in Australia, transferred to UH.

“He’s a pillar of our program,” said Ganot, who is in his fourth season as UH head coach. “He was our first recruit when we got here.”

Purchase was primarily a perimeter shooter and accurate passer when he enrolled at the Manoa campus in 2015. Since then, he has become a pesky defender, an active rebounder and, at times, a pull-up shooter off drives. He has connected on better than 80 percent of his 2-point shots.

Before a season-high crowd of 4,868 on Saturday night, Purchase showed his overall skills. He hit eight of 12 shots, including five of eight from behind the 3-point arc, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked a shot.

“People talk about our ability to shoot and our ability to pass,” Ganot said. “It starts with Jack.”

In the previous meeting between the teams, the Highlanders (9-18, 3-8 Big West) pulled off the upset thanks to sharpshooters Dikymbe Martin and Dragan Elkaz. This time, Elkaz was held to eight points. But Martin scored 22 on 8-for-13 shooting, including 6-for-9 on 3s. But most of Martin’s production came after the ’Bows (16-9, 7-4 ) established dominance.

UH guard Brocke Stepteau hit two 3s to open the scoring and finished with 17 points. Eddie Stansberry broke out of a shooting slump with three 3s and 15 points. Leland Green came off the bench to hit two 3s in the second half. And reserve wing Samuta Avea provided a thunderous put-back dunk.

“We were joking earlier, ‘What’s going to happen when they’re all clicking at the same time?’ ” Ganot recalled. “It was good to see Eddie shoot well. And Leland’s been shooting it well. It’s opening up a lot of things for our team as a whole. The big thing is winning turnovers and winning the board.”

The ’Bows turned the ball over nine times, the fourth game in a row they had single-digit giveaways. They constructed a 34-21 advantage in rebounds. The ’Bows also fouled only 11 times. The Highlanders attempted five free throws.

“I thought we imposed our will in the first half,” Ganot said of UH’s 50-29 lead at the intermission. “We finished the first half well and we started the second half well. That was the big key. Our energy both with the fans and our team was awesome. Our guys fed off it. We’re tough when we’re like that.”