Updated: Eagles fly past Warriors
The Hawaii basketball team will apparently need a little more time to thaw out from its trip to Canada last weekend.
The Warriors still looked cold in an 89-72 home loss to Eastern Washington on Tuesday night, November 22.
“I didn’t really recognize that team out there,” Hawaii head coach Gib Arnold said of his Warriors. “The one thing we have been able to bring is we traditionally play good defense. But that second half, we let the flood gates open and they hit a bunch of shots.”
A crowd of 5,521 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Warriors drop to 1-2 with their second consecutive loss. The first came just three days earlier against nationally-ranked Gonzaga in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Eastern Washington improved to 2-2.
“It wasn’t the legs, it was the energy,” sophomore forward Trevor Wiseman said. “We just didn’t bring it today … we should have beat these guys, definitely.”
The game was close in the first half, but Eastern Washington opened the second half with a 13-3 run and never looked back.
Five Hawaii players scored in double-figures, led by senior Zane Johnson’s 14 points. Vander Joaquim added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Wiseman contributed 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Shaquille Stokes and Joston Thomas scored 10 points each.
But it was not nearly enough against an Eastern Washington team that shot 56.7 percent from the field in the second half, and converted 24 of 26 free throws (92.3 percent) for the game.
“I thought they were more athletic at every position,” Arnold said. “Those teams give us a hard time. They can drive it, they can shoot it and they hit their foul shots. They did a lot of things that we weren’t able to do tonight. They beat us and they beat us good.”
Hawaii was actually in control for the first 15 minutes of the game. The Warriors raced to a 9-2 lead to open the game, and held a 27-21 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half.
The Eagles closed the first half with a 12-2 surge to take a 33-29 advantage at halftime. They then opened the second half with the 13-3 run that increased the lead to 46-32 with 15:30 remaining. Hawaii never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
“It was very frustrating,” Wiseman said. “They would shoot 3s; long rebounds, they would get it and get couple possessions after that. It was just frustrating the whole game. They were just out-rebounding us on the offensive boards. It was tough.”
The Eagles out-rebounded the Warriors, 34-30, including 13-8 on offensive rebounds.
“They were just crashing the boards, they were playing super-hard,” Zane Johnson said. “They had a sense of urgency like they wanted to get all the rebounds and they wanted to pound it inside and they came out and out-played us.”
The Warriors actually had a decent shooting night, going 24 of 49 from the field (49.0 percent). However, they went just 3 of 14 (21.4 percent) from 3-point range, and 21 of 34 (61.8 percent) from the free throw line.
Joston Thomas provided a bit of a spark off the bench in the second half. He scored all 10 of his points in 11 minutes of action in the second half, when he shot 4 of 6 from the field and 2 of 3 on free throws before fouling out in the closing seconds.
Collin Chiverton, who was being recruited by Hawaii while he was at junior college in San Francisco last season, finished with 20 points to lead the Eagles.
The Warriors will play another home game this week when they host Pacific on Friday.
(Photos courtesy Brandon Flores)
not enough scorers on the team…we got defenders but not quick enough..joston needs more minutes…can’t have miles, jefferson, hauns, wiseman, and vander on the court at the same time..still 2-3 recruiting classes away for sure…athletic scorers we need
so i guess now everyone sees why i graded the recruiting class as a “D”…no blakes, biggs, mitchell and stevens…mitchell and blakes could have been that scoring answer along with stevens brining much need help to vander on the defensive side..gib is bringing in a lot of bigs for next season but we really need a 2 guard
Not a fan of the effort tonight, They need to come out next game and prove this was a fluke.
point shaving maybe
This Eastern Washington team is fast! They made Hawaii look like they were napping tonite. The turnovers and steals was just too much. Come on guys, let’s do a better showing this Friday. PROTECT YOUR HOUSE!
Who DOESNʻT need “athletic scorers?”
we are going miss, “bo barnes for three”
Scorers would have helped; scoring always helps … but Defense is (usually and needs to be) more reliable …
At least right now or tonight — EWU was the better team …
For Now — Needed Fresher Legs, they looked jet-lagged — got back in Sunday from Vancouver, Tuesday might be worse than Monday (jet lag effects are sometimes worse the second or third day); maybe needed lighter practices instead of three hour burn-out sessions; Gib acknowledged the tired legs but gave EWU credit for moving the ball and spreading the defense well …
we’re usually much quicker on defense; worst defensive performance in a long time; they held Gonzaga to 40% for the game; then EWU to 35.3% FG,14.3% 3’s in first half (should have held lead); but gave up 56.7% FG and 41.7% 3’s in second half; with poor defensive rotation, allowing drives for easy lay-ups; and needed to get to the boards and loose balls …
EWU looks like a pretty good team — they had the ‘Zags down late in the game @ Gonzaga last week; but even on an off-shooting night we ought to play decent ‘D’;
So one got away — that based on first half, was winnable — lesson for the team … IF they learn the lessons … Gib says they’ll break down film and be back on it as a team tomorrow afternoon …
shooting — Shaq and/or Hauns got to get more effective and consistent to back-up Zane — per Gib on Post-Game — the third shooter, “…it’s gotta come from Hauns…”
Maybe they’ll need to use Orel Lev in January …
Expect strong bounce-back against Pacific Friday — and hopefully carry forward what they learn on to the road @ Pepperdine and @ Pacific re-match …
Fresher legs = needs better conditioning
Thing is it wasnt the legs, UH just got out hustled and needs to step up their defense.
no way there was 5500 in attendance…out-played out-coached that’s it don’t blame jet lag because i thought EW had to catch a plane to get here..2-3 recruiting classes away
Is Miah coming back? Could have used his ball-handling and spark tonight.. Lost year for football already.. No way we’re beating BYU. Come back, Miah!
All I can say is Gerry , Gerry , Gerry, …… Gerry Blakes ! We need you ,real SOOON!!!!!!!
How is Hauns not starting?! He’s a scorer! Avg 30 pts a game last year. He could of easily gone somewhere else but gave that up to come here, and they don’t even give him PT. Against gonzaga he went in for three min, made a three, then for no reason got taken out….! What’s up with that?! This is ridiculous!
You said it, he’s a scorer…he’s just not a good defender yet. Gib’s a defense minded coach, and if you don’t play good defense you’ll see limited PT. He has active hands and seems to trap and help well, but in man to man D, which is what they’ll play mostly this year, his on-ball defense needs work. That was evident against EWU, a very athletic team, where their wings drove by him several times. As the coaches work with him, I’m sure he’ll improve on the defensive end but you guys need to quit comparing his JUCO stats. He’s not going to score 30 ppg here, it’s a completely different competion level than a CC.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We should be grateful for this learning experience – yeah, we may have had jet lag, yeah Hauns scored 30 ppg @ JUCO, yeah we did not make half-time adjustments, bottom line is that we did not play good “supportive” defense . . . The help and cutting-off lanes was not there! We did not take enough charges nor did we rebound well off missed shots – long (3 pt.) shots = long rebound . . . we just did not go after it hard enough (hustle). We need to reduce turnovers, quickly. Some players may have been intimidated by their athleticism; oh well, let’s learn and move on!
We should go on a roll now that we have these few games under our belt and know what to expect – good luck Friday Warriors – the time is now! Mahalo
i like that gib is defensive minded but we don’t got good enough defenders and the defenders we got have no offensive abilities…having miles, jefferson, hauns, wiseman and vander all in at the same time won’t win games gib..since it’s early in the season you should get hauns and thomas more minutes to get them going once WAC starts