FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Paul Jesinskis dunked during last night's exhibition game against Brigham Young-Hawaii at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Seasiders test Rainbows
Hawaii barely holds off
Brigham Young-Hawaii in
an exhibition game for the 'Bows
The Hawaii basketball team needed a test heading into its regular-season opener and got exactly what it wanted from Brigham Young-Hawaii last night.
The Rainbow Warriors survived the hot shooting of two Seasider newcomers to pull out a 63-56 win in an exhibition game before a crowd of 3,056 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii trailed for the first 32 minutes of the contest, but rallied past the Seasiders, an NCAA Division II team, in a tune-up for their regular-season opener against UC Santa Barbara on Friday.
"I couldn't ask for a better game for us," UH coach Riley Wallace said.
"That's what exhibition is all about. They had two (games) and executed better than we did and we'll be better the next time."
The game counted as a regular-season contest for BYUH, which fell to 0-1. The Seasiders travel to Colorado this week to take on Regis on Friday and Mountain West Conference member Colorado State on Saturday.
UH guard Michael Kuebler led UH with 18 points, while center Paul Jesinskis finished with 13 points and six rebounds in his first start.
Julian Sensley overcame some early jitters to finish with 10 points and nine rebounds in his first Division I game.
BYUH forward Jake Chrisman, a transfer from BYU-Provo, led all scorers with 23 points, while Michael Stowell, who played at Utah State last year, hit for 18 points and hit 4 of 6 shots beyond the 3-point line.
"It definitely was encouraging, but we came here to win," Stowell said. "We're a little let down from that, but we have a lot of things we gained from this game. We have a lot of things to build on and I think we gave a pretty good performance."
BYUH won exhibition games over teams from Korea and Samoa in their Asia-Pacific tournament over the weekend and was clearly the sharper team in the first half as it took a 33-25 lead at halftime.
FL MORRIS/FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
BYUH's Shawn Opunui grabbed one of his two rebounds against UH's Logan Lee yesterday.
The Seasiders tore up the nets in the first half, hitting 11 of their first 15 shots from the field. Stowell's third 3-pointer of the first half gave the Seasiders a 28-21 lead at the 7:20 mark.
Chrisman, a pitcher with the BYU baseball team a year ago, made 5 of 8 shots from the field in the half as he and Stowell combined to score all but nine of BYUH's first-half points.
The Rainbows shot 33 percent (8-for-24) from the field in the first half.
UH charged back early in the second half by turning up the intensity on defense.
"(Wallace) just told us we need to step up, we need to be more intense," UH guard Logan Lee said. "In the first half we let them come into our place and just do whatever they wanted to and we didn't do too much about it. In the second half, we just stepped up and we had to take control."
A steal by Phil Martin led to a dunk by Jesinskis to cut the deficit to 38-34. Two possessions later, Sensley started a fast break by swatting a shot by Chrisman against the backboard. Lee then found Martin for a dunk to close the gap to 40-38 with 12 minutes left.
The Rainbows tied the game at 43 on a 3-pointer by Vaidotas Peciukas with 9:19 left. But Chrisman answered with a trey from the top of the key to give the Seasiders the lead.
After a layup by Kuebler, UH took its first lead of the game when Kuebler fed Jesinskis for a layup with 7:36 left. A monster dunk by Sensley off a drive from the left wing capped a 13-3 run and gave Hawaii a 51-46 lead.
BYUH closed to 52-51 with 3:27 left, but the Rainbows pulled away again and sealed the game on Lee's 3-pointer with 43 seconds left.
"Hopefully we made them better," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "Maybe they'll get a little more out of that than an easy exhibition game."
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Rainbows 63, Seasiders 56
BYU-Hawaii fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Lynn 0 2 0 0 9 1 2 0 Opunui 3 9 0 0 37 2 1 7 Stowell 6 10 2 2 34 5 3 18 Heide 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 Winans 1 3 0 0 16 3 0 2 Smith 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Chrisman 10 19 1 2 35 3 2 23 Nobmann 0 2 0 0 33 4 2 0 Smylie 2 5 2 5 30 2 3 6 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 22 50 5 9 200 23 13 56 Hawaii fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 1 6 0 2 31 3 1 2 Carter 1 1 0 0 8 0 1 2 Kuebler 6 12 5 6 36 5 5 18 Jesinskis 6 7 1 1 28 6 1 13 Sensley 3 5 3 4 33 9 1 10 Sottos 0 1 1 2 4 0 0 1 Zivanovic 0 0 0 2 0+ 0 0 0 Shimonovich 0 2 2 2 6 1 0 2 Lee 3 4 2 2 33 3 2 9 Peciukas 1 5 1 3 12 2 1 4 Blackett 1 5 0 0 9 3 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 22 48 15 24 200 34 12 63
Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime-BYU-Hawaii 33, Hawaii 25
3-point goals--BYUH 7-17 (Stowell 4-6, Chrisman 2-2, Opunui 1-5, Lynn 0-2, Nobmann 2), Hawaii 4-13 (Lee 1-2, Kuebler 1-3, Sensley 1-3, Peciukas 1-3, Blackett 0-1, Sottos 0-1). Personal fouls--BYUH 19, Hawaii 12. Steals--BYUH 5 (Chrisman 2, Nobmann 2, Lynn 1), Hawaii 5 (Sensley 2, Kuebler 1, Lee 1, Martin 1). Blocked shots--Hawaii 4 (Sensley 3, Peciukas 1). Turnovers--BYUH 14, Hawaii 11. Officials--Brian Yamasaki, Brian Barr, Larry Yamashita. A--3,056.
