Again taking care of business early, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team ran past Mississippi Valley State, 88-56, Wednesday night in the opening round of the 59th annual Outrigger Rainbow Classic.
A midweek crowd of 1,937 in BankOh Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Harry Rouhliadeff score a career-high 22 points and Aaron Hunkin-Claytor dish a career-high 11 assists as the Warriors improved to 2-1. Michael James scored 11 points and Patrick Punch added 10 points for the Delta Devils, who fell to 1-3.
UH jumped out to leads of 9-0 and 12-3, before MVSU rallied to close it to 18-15 after Lamont Sams’ floater with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half.
But soon after, Rouhliadeff drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to ignite a stunning 28-8 run to close out the half with the Warriors leading, 48-23.
“Pleased with the win, thankful for our fans, honored and excited to be part of the Rainbow (Classic),” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “I love the way we started out the game. It’s early, but we’ve been setting the tone pretty consistently. We’ve been finishing the half pretty well and starting the second halves well. You gotta have all of those, the good teams have that.”
Rouhliadeff’s layup two and half minutes into the second half opened the lead to 57-28, and the Delta Devils could not get closer than 21 points the rest of the way.
The Warriors resume play in the Rainbow Classic with a 7 p.m. game Friday against Manhattan in BankOh Arena.
The game will be televised live statewide on Spectrum Sports Channel 12 and broadcast live via radio on ESPN 1420AM.
More details to come.