RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Matt Lojeski drove past Saint Louis' Danny Brown in the first half of last night's game.

Hawaii hits Saint Louis with depth at home

UH’s Matt Gibson is suspended for conduct detrimental to the team

The Hawaii basketball team used its size advantage to rebound from its first loss of the season with an 82-64 win over Saint Louis last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Warriors outrebounded a smaller Saint Louis squad 37-28 as they bounced back from a disappointing defeat at UNLV last Tuesday with a convincing win before a crowd of 6,213.

After being shut out in the loss at UNLV, UH forward Julian Sensley scored 22 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to lead the Rainbows.

Guard Matt Lojeski hit five 3-pointers to finish with 17 points, while Bobby Nash came off the bench to score 13. Forward Ahmet Gueye contributed 10 points and seven rebounds and blocked five shots. Point guard Deonte Tatum dished out eight assists.

"I think everybody came out with more energy," Sensley said.

"I think it's good (the loss) happened to us early, because we were kind of sitting on cloud nine after beating Michigan State, and UNLV woke us up a little bit."

The Rainbows improved to 2-1 by beating the Billikens for the second straight season. But unlike last year's one-point contest, decided on a shot by Sensley with 15 seconds left, UH didn't need any late-game dramatics last night.

The Rainbows opened up a 10-point lead at halftime and pulled away from Saint Louis after the break. UH shot 51.6 percent from the field, while holding Saint Louis to 27.6 percent in the second half.

"Tonight, big won over quickness. In Vegas, quickness won over big," UH coach Riley Wallace said.

UH played without junior guard Matt Gibson, who was suspended indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the team."

Gibson started 21 games last season and led the Rainbows in scoring with 13 points per game. He opened his junior year on the bench and scored eight points against Michigan State. He had just one point in 9 minutes in the loss at UNLV.

With Gibson, who could play both guard spots, out of the rotation, UH went deeper down its bench, as freshman Hiram Thompson saw his first action of the season in the first half and junior transfer John Wilder got his most extensive playing time of the young season.

"Coach said we have to move forward," said Sensley, a UH co-captain. "He's definitely a big part of this team and we could definitely use him, but we can't dwell on it."

Lojeski hit all five of his shots in the first half, four beyond the 3-point line, as UH came back from an early five-point deficit to take a 43-33 lead at halftime.

Saint Louis started a four-guard lineup around 6-foot-10 center Ian Vouyoukas and the Billikens' quickness seemed to bother UH early as they went up 17-12.

Lojeski and Nash then hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start a 13-2 UH run. Sensley, who went 0-for-11 from the field against UNLV, missed his first four shots before draining a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 8:30 mark to cap the run.

"I kind of smiled after I hit the shot," Sensley said. "I was like, 'It's about time.' It kind of took off from there."

Saint Louis stayed within six most of the half, but UH inched away to take a 10-point lead and momentum into the locker room. The Rainbows ended the half with Sensley's putback dunk at the buzzer off a missed layup by Nash.

Sensley helped stretch the lead to 17 in the second half in spectacular fashion, scoring on a soaring dunk down the lane and another on a spin move along the baseline that caused the basket to collapse halfway to the ground.

"I didn't even know what happened," Sensley said. "You don't see that every day."

After a brief delay, the Rainbows continued to pull away as the Billikens went more than 5 minutes without a field goal and trailed 77-54 on Nash's 3-pointer with 3 minutes left.

"We did not defend at all. They had 80 possessions and scored 82 points, that's not acceptable," Saint Louis coach Brad Soderberg said.

"They had better, taller, stronger, older basketball players than we did."

Freshmen Dominic Waters and Jack Miller made their UH debuts in the closing minutes, with Miller scoring his first points on a jumper with a second left in the game.

After playing three games over the first week of the season, the Rainbows will have 10 days off before their home rematch with UNLV on Dec. 6.

Saint Louis (1-1) remains winless against UH all-time, dropping to 0-4.