‘Bows open at their collective best

Hawaii played something more akin to hot potato than basketball for much of Friday night’s 2018-19 season opener against Portland.

The Rainbow Warriors peppered the ball around the halfcourt and even a little in transition. It rarely stuck to anyone’s mitts for long, and the box score bore witness — UH assisted on 22 of its 31 field goals and had just nine turnovers in the 82-64 win on Friday night.

Even without UH’s top returning scorer, Sheriff Drammeh, in action, the Rainbows dominated the second half collectively once the Pilots drew even with a 10-0 run near the end of the first half.

Five players scored in double figures and a sixth, sophomore point guard Drew Buggs, had seven assists.

“I thought it was great. Moving the ball, everyone was getting good shots,” said senior forward Jack Purchase, who hit three of UH’s 11 3s and spent the rest of his time on offense operating and dealing out of the high post. “We didn’t have many bad shots tonight, which was great for us, I think. We had 22 assists, nine turnovers. So that’s massive for us. We try to keep it under 11 turnovers a game. I think that really helped us throughout the second half, we’re getting wide-open looks, we’re moving the ball around, boys kept swinging it around. It’s fun to play when it’s like that.”

>> Zigmars Raimo tied his career high of 17 points and set a new best in rebounds with eight
>> Brocke Stepteau was his efficient self with 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting (4-6 3FGs)
>> Purchase put in 15 points with five assists and moved into sole possession of ninth in UH 3FGs made (125)
>> Eddie Stansberry popped 3s like champagne on New Years, going 4-for-10 from deep for 12 points in his debut
>> Samuta Avea was active around both baskets with 10 points and seven boards, and an emphatic block

All in all, it was the best start to the season you could hope for.

Between dual point guards Buggs and Stepteau, and Purchase figuring to play a larger role as a passing big man this year, UH coach Eran Ganot was asked afterward if this team could be the best of his four at UH in terms of ball movement.

One of the best set-ups came as time expired in the first half, after Portland had rallied to tie it at 34. Stepteau drove inside, attracted the defense and dumped it off to Raimo for a layup at the horn.

“We take pride in this. It’s nice to say that I think all our teams have been that way. Even our first group,” Ganot said. “That’s the toughest thing to guard. We always say, ‘move the ball or die.’ Ball movement is really tough to guard, because here comes second, third penetrations, extra passes, it eventually wears down the defense when you have that amount of unselfish guys. So I think maybe this early (this group) is ahead (of the others). When you have a guy like Jack at the 4, the way he zips it, and the improvement of Drew. Then some of it opens up more when you have rollers and we added a shooter. Even though Sheriff wasn’t out there. But I think it’s contagious. Eight assists, no turnovers from your starting 4 and 5? That’s not common, and I think it’s dripping down to the rest of the guys.

He paused, and continued: “To answer your question, as good as it’s been this early.”

Sophomore guard Marcus Shaver Jr., the one-time UH recruit and former island resident through eighth grade, scored a team-high 19 for the Pilots. ‘Iolani graduate Hugh Hogland, a redshirt freshman forward, scored his first two career points on a pair of free throws in 15 minutes played in his college debut (UPDATE: Hogland actually had a basket in the Pilots’ previous game over non-Division I Multnomah, which officially counted). He had friends and family waving giant Hogland cutout heads behind the Diamond Head basket.

“They did a really good job of moving the ball well, driving it and keeping us off balance,” Portland coach Terry Porter said. “We didn’t do a good job of keeping the ball in front of us. So, you give them credit in regards to their ability to really attack off of ball movement. That’s an area we’ve got to get better at.”

Ganot said Drammeh is still in a general “day to day” mode of recovery, meaning he’s questionable for Saturday’s 7 p.m. game against Division II Humboldt State. Humboldt was crushed 93-48 by North Texas in the first game Friday.