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Australia rallies past Warriors in first exhibition

The inexperienced Hawaii basketball team gave an experienced Australian national team all it could handle for 35 minutes in an exhibition game yesterday at Duanggong, China.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, the game lasted 40 minutes.

Several turnovers in the game’s final five minutes proved costly, as Australia rallied to defeat Hawaii, 80-70.

The game was played in a private practice gym, and the only fans in attendance were the Hawaii boosters who are on the “Warriors to Asia” tour with the team.

“We got tired there at the end,” Hawaii head coach Gib Arnold said. “We felt that jet lag, we felt that lack of numbers, and we just couldn’t finish.

“But for our first time playing together as a team, I’m very happy with how the guys did. As we thought, there’s a lot of things we have to work on, but the effort was there and we played together. It was good for us.”

Freshman point guard Shaquille Stokes led the Warriors with 17 points – all in the first half. He hit four 3-pointers, and also passed for several flashy assists.

“The start was good, we came out and played hard,” Stokes said. “This is our first game in a couple days … we have a lot of things we did well, but we still have a lot of things to work on. It’s a building experience for us right now.”

The Warriors had just nine players available, including three true freshmen. Zane Johnson, the leading scorer from last season, did not play due to an ankle injury.

Trevor Wiseman, who was not expected to play because of an ankle injury, came off the bench to contribute 10 points.

“I think it was a great experience,” Wiseman said. “They were really big – grown men. I think it made us better. Even though it’s just one game, it made us a lot better.”

Hauns Brereton and Joston Thomas added 12 points each, Bobby Miles scored nine, Davis Rozitis seven, and Brandon Jawato three.

The Australian team featured several top collegiate players, and they are representing their country in the World University Games.

“Great learning experience,” Arnold said. “Saw some real good things out of the new guys – Shaq and Hauns were really good. You got Vander (Joaquim) and Zane (Johnson) out and yet we were right there down at the end.”

The Warriors trailed at halftime, 41-40, but led for much of the third quarter. Australia came back late in the fourth when it started to apply pressure on Hawaii’s backcourt

14 Comments

  1. Thanks for your work sending in the vids! Kinda cool seeing it go from day to night through the windows. Hopefully these games early on will have the guys gellin’.

  2. Can’t wait to see Shaq play at the SSC.

  3. really nice video..i wish we had vander and a healthy zane for this trip and not to mention blakes, biggs, ostrowski

  4. Fun to watch the connection between Shaq and Joston. And nice to see Bobby sinking the trey. Even undermanned this team has some weapons. Great stuff, thank you Dayton and thank you Pacific Risk Solutions!

  5. Thanks for the video Dayton,looks like Shaq & Hauns will be a good addition to the team.This trip will also help other players to improve the skills.

  6. Hey, Dayton. I’ll watch the video later. Just wanted to let you know that KHON used your video of the game — I wondered where they got it from — but Kanoa did credit Warriorinsider.com so I’m sure he got permission for its use. Keep it up.

  7. Shaq breakin ankles at 3:40.

  8. Shaq is gonna be a star 🙂

  9. Transition to international rules can be disorienting; it can have a vertigo-like effect on US players. FIBA rules seem awkward to American players (and FIBA refs can be brutal). Spacing, foul/no foul, traveling, even substitution, timeout and OB protocol is different. Great opp for guys to get out of their box and see how the rest of the world plays.

    Wonʻt be long before US starts adopting intʻl rules (many of which make more sense than ours).

    Important to not look at Wʻs and Lʻs on this trip; but rather, keep an eye on chemistry and progress. What a fantastic opportunity. Weʻll see these experiences manifest themselves in November and beyond.

    Mahalo, Braddah Tony (Pacific Risk Solutions), and the many other generous supporters who made this happen. Mahalo nui e Dayton for being our eyes and ears.

    Kick off vs. Colorado is in less than a month, and all we can talk about is UH hoops; can you tell things have changed around here?

  10. Dayton, good job on the videos and game coverage. Keep up the good work.

  11. Way to go Dayton. Great video of the game. So glad the sponsors stepped up and sent you on the trip. The new additions to the Rainbow squad are the real deal as fans of the NCAA Summer League were fortunate enough to witness. Man the hoops season can’t start soon enough.

  12. Schedule change in China:

    The Warriors were originally scheduled to play an exhibition game in Weifang, China, on Thursday evening (China time), but that game has been moved due to travel logistics.

    The Warriors are scheduled to travel via bus/plane from Shanghai to Weifang on Thursday, so they requested that the game be rescheduled.

    Hawaii’s next game on the trip will be Friday evening (China time).

  13. Thanks for the vids. It keeps the UH hoops junkies like myself happy. Man Shaq Stokes got a real smooth under control game. Polished like a typical NYC PG! This team could make some real noise this year. I cant wait till they join the Big West. Ill be at all the SoCal stops! GO BOWS!!!

  14. S/o to my lil bro shaq. a rising star from HARLEM lol… yo bro keep doing your thing out there keep ya head up NYC got the BEST PG’S!!!

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