‘Bows begin tour competition

It looks like it’s been fun. Now come the games.

After an enjoyable day discovering Brisbane and the Gold Coast in the upper Australian state of Queensland, the Rainbow Warriors buckled down for the first of four games on their tour.

They play the Brisbane Bullets of the top Australian pro league, the National Basketball League (NBL), at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Because Australia is a day ahead, that means it’s tonight (Friday) back in Hawaii, with a 10:30 p.m. tipoff.

Unfortunately, this game, like the other three on the men’s tour, is not being live streamed (unlike the first two games of the UH women’s tour in New Zealand).

Look for an update here once the result is known. The official Hawaii basketball Twitter account will likely be posting updates throughout.

UPDATE: The Brisbane Bullets of the NBL pull away late to win 73-54 in the first game of UH’s tour. It turns out the game was being streamed, of a sort, on the Brisbane Bullets’ Instagram page. I caught the last quarter or so after covering high school football. UH was within seven points going into the fourth, but the Bullets had them sniffed out pretty well after that, forcing some tough shots while picking apart UH’s defense at the other end for several dunks.

The gym they played in was small, but ringed with fans, and it seemed pretty loud in there (especially with the PA guy shouting for defense into the mic every UH possession). The UH fans traveling with the team filled up a portion of one of the baseline seating areas.

I’ll look to add scoring leaders or a full box score when it becomes available.

UPDATE: Here were the UH scoring leaders.
Eddie Stansberry 10, Dawson Carper 9, Mate Colina 8, Jack Purchase 7, Brocke Stepteau 6