Despite being a new father for only four days, Hawai’i grad transfer Tanner Cuff sure looked like a cool papa Saturday night in his debut for the Warriors basketball team.
Cuff, a 6-foot-7 combo guard who played at Evansville last season, took over at the point for injured returning starter Aaron Hunkin-Claytor and promptly scored eight points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished seven assists with only one turnover to help UH blow past visiting Pomona-Pitzer, 101-51, in the exhibition opener for both teams in BankOh Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Cuff’s wife, Jessica, gave birth to their first child, daughter Halo, on Tuesday night. But with Hunkin-Claytor still recovering from a broken left hand and in street clothes Saturday, Cuff took a break from daddy duties and delivered an impressive all-around performance showing father-like leadership.
“It worked out pretty perfectly, I only missed one practice, and so I was able to still practice with the team and get ready for our game,” Cuff said. “Aaron’s a great player and it was sad to see him go down, but like coach said, ‘Next man up.’ I really wanted to play, I always want to play, and so I’m glad it all worked out in the right time frame.”
It didn’t take long for Cuff to make an impact on the court, as he sank an early free throw and then completed a three-point play to help the Warriors jump to a 9-3 lead, and he also had two assists in the first five minutes as Hawai’i went ahead, 13-5.
“He’s a great point guard, he was my point guard in high school seven years ago,” said Warriors center Isaac Johnson, who finished with 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting to go along with four rebounds. “And so it’s a joy to be back playing with him. He knows the game so well, he knows when to score, when to take it when he has a mismatch, which happens often. And how to find the open guy.”
After Charlie Hutchinson scored on a putback to close it to 14-7 six minutes in, Yacine Toumi answered with a layup to ignite a 10-4 run capped by Dre Bullock’s 3-pointer from the right wing to stretch the lead to 24-11 with 11:35 remaining in the first half.
Hutchinson then closed it to 31-21 on a 3 from the left wing at the 6:07 mark, but Johnson came back with a traditional three-point play about a half minute later to start a 16-4 run to close out the half for a 47-25 lead that expanded quickly after intermission.
“Good step, of many steps,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said. “For us, we needed to get on the arena floor with this new group and new faces. We’ve had our challenges the last three-and-a-half weeks, we’ve faced some early adversity (with injuries). At the first practice, everybody was good to go, and then we lost a couple guys … Gytis (Nmeiksa) and Aaron have been out for 90 percent of that time.
“The positive is … a lot of these (new) guys will get a lot of reps early. Not much subs in practice, and they’ll be better for it.”
More details to come.