Haunslaught at Summer League

Anyone who remembers this video will recognize the fact that Hauns Brereton ate a proverbial extra scoop of poi for Central Medical Clinic before Thursday night’s College Summer League game against Grantco Pacific.

Brereton erupted for 47 points in a comeback 101-97 win, his second 40-point-plus outing in two games since arriving for summer school on July 1.

With the UH senior swingman the focal point of the CMC offense, senior point guard and UH teammate Jace Tavita continually looked to set Brereton up for buckets. The Haunslaught lasted right to the end, as he hit two free throws with 0.1 seconds left to cap off his impressive night (even considering summer league defensive standards).

“It’s been real fun,” Brereton said. “Been able to work on the things Coach (Arnold) has asked me to, and been able to work with Jace and the good players on my team. … Coach told me he’s going to need me to be able to handle the rock and bring it up. So I’ve been able to do that, Jace has been giving me some time to do that.”

Brereton shrugged about his second straight scoring binge. He was efficient while he did it, connecting on over half of his shots and draining six 3-pointers. When he wasn’t pulling up, he was driving and piling up the and-1s.

“That’s what my team needed me to do today, so Jace set me up multiple times,” he said. “Over half my points were directly from his assists. I’m glad he’s on my team.”

Tavita is built like a linebacker, and showed off a willingness to guard players at any position by D’ing up on freshman forward Caleb Dressler. His main job, though, was acting as a facilitator for Brereton, Kyle Pape (17 points) and the rest of the CMC crew.

“The biggest thing is to get back into game shape,” Tavita said. “(Before these summer league games) I haven’t played in a game since last summer league. They put me and Hauns together for a reason, because we’ll be in the (UH) games together. It’s just good getting used to where he’s at. He’s a great shooter, he likes it in certain places, so I just try to get him open.”

Tavita wasn’t known as a great shooter when he came in from Utah a year and a half ago, but it’s something he’s been working on. He connected on a couple from deep Tuesday.

“Just staying aggressive with my shooting,” Tavita said. “Defense, I try to guard different positions. Working on my offensive game and my conditioning.”

Brereton said his other goal for the summer was getting in the habit of winning. He’s done a good job of that so far CMC improved to 3-2 for the summer — including 2-0 with Brereton. That was despite a double-digit deficit early in the game.

“We just said one bucket at a time, one stop at a time,” Tavita said.

UH alum Geremy Robinson led Grantco Pacific (4-2) with 26 points, while Julian Sensley chipped in 19 and Dressler 15.

————

In the first game of the night, league leader Flipbooks Hawaii (6-1) held off Solar Universe 103-101 despite losing forward Christian Standhardinger to a first-half ejection.

Standhardinger got tangled up with HPU’s Kawika Smith and the two had to be separated. Both players will miss their teams’ next summer league game. Kaunaoa McGee stepped up for Flipbooks with a game-high 30 points.

Derrick Low had a 3-point attempt to win it for Solar Universe (2-4) just before the buzzer, but his shot hit back iron.

Also on the court at the end of the game was Kamehameha graduate Dyrbe Enos, who showed off some range by drilling three 3-pointers in the second half.

Enos will be expected to play point guard when he walks on with UH this fall.

“It’s a confidence booster to be ready for the fall,” Enos said around a “Dyrbe Enos!” shout-out from Solar teammate Bobby Nash. “Just trying to play my best defense … (tonight) I was open, I was trying to shoot it and make it. Other than that, I think my role is more of a point guard. Run the offense and pass the ball.”

Had a chance to do that with this team?

“That’s what Coach Artie (Wilson) is trying to tell me to do. Penetration. Trying to work on that now, we’ll see how it goes from there.”

Behind a strong first half, UH guard Brandon Spearman led S.U. with 22 points, while Nash added 19 and Low 17.