Rainbow Warriors basketball: Purchase buys record

No one could keep a handle on Jack Purchase this time.

Not Zane Johnson. Not Cal Poly. And certainly not UC Riverside.

Purchase, who was content to mostly play decoy against the Poly Mustangs on Thursday, was the catapult that knocked down the wall keeping Hawaii (16-9, 7-4 Big West) from top-three standing with five games to play. UH sniped away with impunity in an 87-64 romp over the Riverside Highlanders on Saturday.

Purchase scored 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting, two points off his career high, and tied his season best with 5-for-8 shooting from deep.

It snapped one of the stranger home losing streaks to a particular opponent in UH history. The lowly Highlanders had won three straight at the Stan Sheriff Center going back to 2016.

But UH came out hot, with Brocke Stepteau assisting on Purchase’s record-breaking 181st 3 in the opening minutes (he’d tied Johnson at 180 with a single triple in UH’s 75-54 win over Cal Poly). The senior forward from Australia added four more moneyballs Saturday to put himself well on the way to 200 with five games to play in the regular season, plus the Big West tournament and possible postseason play.

All Hail…👑 Jack is King…congrats to @jackpurchase6 for being the new 3-pt FGs made record holder: 181. 👌#HawaiiMBB 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/jX9byIY5jo

— Spectrum Sports HI (@specsportshi) February 17, 2019

Riverside’s zone defense was a rich target.

“For shooters like Brocke and I, when you see a zone, when a team’s in a zone, your eyes light up,” said a lei-clad Purchase in the postgame press conference. “They’re going to lose you at some point, so that’s just what I was trying to do. I was trying to move around, get to open spots, and these boys did a great job of finding me the ball and I was knocking them down.”

His binge headlined an explosive 3-point-shooting night as a whole for the Rainbow Warriors. UH was 13-for-23 (56.5 percent) from downtown, which is impressive in its own right, but even more so when you consider the ‘Bows actually cooled off to finish at that number. They were a ridiculous 9-for-13 at halftime.

First-year Highlanders coach David Patrick lamented his team’s inability to keep the ‘Bows reasonably in check from long range, as they did successfully enough in a 75-71 win in Riverside last month (UH was 9-for-24).

“It didn’t matter tonight whether we were in zone or man,” Patrick said. “They were able to find the open guy and hit shots. And hit shots at a high clip. We know not to leave” — he chuckled — “Jack Purchase, but for whatever reason, we kept leaving his butt wide open, so the floodgates opened up with him from 3. I’m OK with him hitting 2s, but when he’s hitting 3s, it really hurts you.”

The single-game 3-point record of 14 makes (which was tied in a win at Long Beach State the previous week) escaped harm, just barely, for yet another time.

It’s easy to forget now, but Purchase was with UH as far back as the 2015-16 season — a redshirt player during the Rainbows’ NCAA Tournament run, and coach Eran Ganot’s first season. Purchase arrived from Auburn, where a coaching change caused him to seek a new situation.

“I love Jack. I saw him when he was a younger kid. He comes from a great family,” Ganot said. “You could always see the potential in him. It was always about getting his love or the game back, his confidence back. You get that when you’re performing, obviously, but (also) when you’re playing the game you love the right way and with a great group of guys. He loves it here.

Ganot turned wistful when asked of Purchase and how he stacks up with the great shooters in program history — the likes of Predrag Savovic, Carl English and Alika Smith.

“Savo and Carl, we love the history of the game here,” Ganot said. “Matt Lojeski. I would say he’s up there with them. No disrespect to those guys because they’re tremendous. Remember, he’s doing it the 4-spot, and with the way the game’s being played now, even more of a problem defensively for others if you have someone (like that) there. He’s up there with them, but those guys are really good shooters too. He’s trying to extend that record, which is great, and hopefully someone breaks his record one day. And I hope he’s rooting for that, which I’m sure he is.”

Purchase wasn’t the only one feeling it. Stepteau poured in 15 of his 17 points in the first 10 minutes, hitting his first six shots (including three 3s).

“To be honest, I felt good as soon as the ball tipped off,” Stepteau said. “I was hitting a lot of shots in warmups, which for me is big, because when it feels good in warmups, I feel like it will translate into games. Then I saw my first one go in, then it was just taking what the defense gave me, if they left me open for 3s or if they let me get to the basket.”

Eddie Stansberry, who was until recently the team’s leading scorer, busted out of his scoring slump to rack up 15 points (and another three 3s), his first game in double figures in the last five contests. Leland Green cashed in on a couple late to nearly put UH in record-breaking single-game territory.

“I was glad I was able to get everybody else going. A lot of guys caught on fire after that,” Stepteau said. “That’s the beauty of our team, like I always say; just the balance. Everyone was clicking today.”

A few more photos of the night: