Standhardinger strikes back

Christian Standhardinger and his Flipbooks Hawaii teammates got some sweet payback on Tuesday night in the College Summer League in Manoa.

Burned by Julian Sensley’s game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer on Saturday for their first loss, a pissed off Flipbooks team (5-1) came out with a vengeance in the rematch — resulting in an 111-83 torching of Grantco Hawaii (4-1).

Standhardinger was the catalyst, hustling for 30 points (don’t tell him it’s just summer league) and requesting the defensive assignment on Sensley this time … and holding the veteran pro to a modest 15.

More and more, it’s becoming obvious that Standhardinger’s energy will be a driving force (if harnessed correctly) for the 2012-13 Rainbow Warriors. He was all over the glass on both ends and found angle after angle to score inside.

Summer league veteran Kaunaoa McGee complemented him with outside shooting and drives to add 30 of his own.

“That was a devastating loss with the buzzer 3, losing by one,” Standhardinger said. “It was important for our self confidence and my self confidence to get them back, and we did. Everybody hustled.”

Chest bumps were doled out aplenty among the Flipbooks teammates during timeouts.

“I’m blessed that I’m on a team where everybody wants to win. Because of that, everybody plays with a lot of effort and energy. If everybody plays with a lot of energy, you want to play with even more energy because you don’t want to let your teammates down, because you see how hard they work. It kind of goes around.”

It clearly wasn’t the first time the German was asked about his frenetic style of play — several times he looked to lead the fast break himself after snagging a rebound or loose ball — so it shouldn’t come as a surprise he’s prepared in talking about the subject.

“That’s what you can do every night,” Standhardinger said. “Sometimes you will miss shots, miss layups. Sometimes you have a bad day, but you can play hard. That’s what you can do every time. Give everything you got. Hustle plays. Go to the board every time to get the second shot at the ball.”

After scoring 24 in his summer league debut, incoming UH freshman Caleb Dressler couldn’t get it going this time for Grantco, finishing with only eight. Still, his potential was obvious; he hit a couple of impressive 10-foot hooks while barely looking at the basket. Walk-on Michael Harper overcame some early struggles to score 11 in the loss.

Unfortunately, these teams won’t meet again until a potential showdown in the summer league playoffs. (quarterfinals are July 31, semis are Aug. 2, championship is Aug. 4). Have a feeling it will be closer if/when that happens.

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In the first game Tuesday night, Wealth Strategy (1-6) picked up its first win of the summer with a 108-102 upset of Solar Universe (2-3), which features summer league staples Derrick Low and Bobby Nash.

An encouraging sight for UH fans was Garrett Jefferson hitting a few key free throws late in the game, allowing W.S. to hang around and ultimately steal it. Jefferson’s been working on his ‘throws, and you can tell. Incoming guard Brandon Spearman had his moments but was mostly quiet in the loss for S.U., as was walk-on-to-be Dyrbe Enos off the bench.

Nash scored a game-high 32 in a losing effort.