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Warriors fall to UNLV in Henderson, 77-62

A decent second half was not enough to overcome a poor-shooting first half for the University of Hawai’i basketball team in a 77-62 loss to undefeated UNLV on Wednesday night.

The “neutral site” game was played before an announced crowd of 4,207 mostly-UNLV fans at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. The Rainbow Warriors dropped to 5-3 with their second consecutive loss. The Runnin’ Rebels improved to 9-0.

The Warriors cut a 19-point halftime deficit down to eight midway through the second half, but the Rebels pulled away in the game’s final minutes.

Senior forward Kamaka Hepa led the Warriors with 15 points Sophomore forward Beon Riley had the best game of his Hawai’i career with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and eight rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. Bernardo da Silva and Harry Rouhliadeff added nine points each. Leading scorer Noel Coleman was limited to six points on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0 for 6 from 3-point range.

Hawai’i committed a season-high 18 turnovers, although UNLV entered the game leading the nation in turnovers forced at 21.9 per game.

UNLV jumped to a 13-5 lead to open the game and never looked back. The Rebels took a 41-22 lead at intermission, with the Warriors shooting just 27.6 percent (8 for 29) from the field, including just 14.3 percent (2 for 14) from 3-point range.

The Warriors chipped away at the lead throughout the second half, and got as close as 54-46 on a 3-pointer by Rouhliadeff with 9:04 remaining. The Rebels responded immediately with an 11-5 surge, including two 3-pointers and a breakaway dunk by Luis Rodriguez – to push the lead back up to 65-51 with 6:23 remaining.

The Warriors shot 42.4 percent from the field in the second half, and finished at 35.5 percent for the game, including 6 for 29 (20.7 percent) from 3-point range.

Rodriguez led the Rebels with 18 points. Former Hawai’i co-captain Justin Webster added 13 points, including 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range, for UNLV.

Hawai’i is scheduled to return to Honolulu tomorrow. Up next on the schedule is a home game against St. Francis (PA) on Sunday. The game is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m., following a 2:00 p.m. game featuring the Hawai’i women’s team against UNLV.

More details will be posted later.


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