'Bows foil Eagles

Lojeski scores 23 and Gueye adds 19 points and 10 rebounds

After taking a little while to warm up, the Hawaii basketball team pulled away from a pesky Coppin State team last night at the Stan Sheriff Center to post its first win of the season.

HAWAII - 79 COPPIN ST. - 67 NEXT UP vs. Oregon St., Sunday

The Rainbows, coming off a season-opening loss at UNLV on Friday, shot 55 percent from the field to earn the 79-67 victory before a crowd of crowd of 3,737 (5,708 tickets issued).

"We needed a win and we needed to gain our confidence back," said guard Dominic Waters, who scored 12 points off the bench. "We started off sluggish tonight, but we picked it up and ran our offense and hit shots."

"We both were road teams this week," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "Both of us played on Friday and both of us traveled, they just doubled our travel."

Hawaii guard Matt Lojeski recovered from a cold shooting night in Las Vegas to lead the Rainbows with a career-high 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field.

Lojeski went 1-for-5 from 3-point range, but scored most of his points on layups, either driving to the basket or cutting under the hoop and scoring off assists from his teammates.

Lojeski also dished out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds.

"This was the second night in a row my shot wasn't falling. I was trying to get to the bucket and help my teammates," Lojeski said. "I still wasn't shooting real well outside, but I was getting to the bucket and getting to the free-throw line."

Forward Ahmet Gueye had 19 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double in as many games. Waters and Riley Luettgerodt contributed 12 points each off the bench.

Hawaii was credited with 40 points in the paint and outrebounded the Eagles 40-28.

"We wanted to get the ball inside, get it down low and get easy buckets," Lojeski said.

Tywain McKee led Coppin State with 22 points and was the only Eagle to score in double figures.

"The difference was our defense," said Coppin State coach Ron Mitchell, whose team made the cross-country trek to Honolulu following a 51-point loss at Virginia Tech last Friday. "We just gave up too many easy baskets and got beat on the boards.

"A lot better effort on our part compared to the other day. ... We ran into a tough team tonight, they shot the ball and we can't beat anybody giving up a 55 percent shooting percentage."

Although the Rainbows controlled most of the game and led by as many as 21 in the second half, Coppin State managed to hang around for most of the nonconference game.

"We're not a team defensively yet, we're not one defensively yet," Waters said.

Hawaii led throughout the first half and took a 36-23 advantage into halftime.

With Coppin State hanging close early, Hawaii heated up from the perimeter to take control as Waters drained a 3-pointer from the right wing to spark an 18-4 run.

Waters hit another 3 during the run and Lojeski and Riley Luettgerodt capped it with long-range shots to give UH a 28-13 lead.

Lojeski's 3-pointer from the right side was his first of the season after missing his first seven shots beyond the line. He had 10 points in the first half.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm still confident, they're going to come, I'm not really worried about that. It's just a slow start."

The Rainbows hit their first five attempts of the second half, all on layups and led 48-36 when Lojeski scored under the basket off a pass from Gueye.

Coppin State cut the UH lead to nine with 15 minutes left, but the Rainbows pulled away again and led 65-44 when Luettgerodt scored on a layup on an inbounds play under the basket.

Hawaii 79, Coppin St. 67

EAGLES (0-2)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Britt	3	5	0	1	22	0	0	7
McKee	7	12	8	11	30	4	4	22
Conyers	0	8	0	0	14	2	0	0
Chesnut	0	0	0	0	20	2	0	0
Kennedy	3	9	0	0	22	4	1	8
Roberts	3	6	0	2	23	1	3	9
Otis	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0
Woodlin	3	5	1	1	20	2	1	8
Norwood	1	2	0	0	4	0	0	2
Harrison	3	5	0	0	18	3	0	6
Pressey	1	4	3	6	24	5	1	5
TEAM						5
Totals	24	57	12	21	200	28	10	67

RAINBOW WARRIORS (1-1)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Gibson	0	0	0	0	11	2	4	0
Lojeski	9	13	4	7	35	7	8	23
Nash	1	8	0	0	25	0	2	3
Verwers	1	2	1	1	28	7	2	3
Gueye	8	10	3	6	32	10	2	19
Lowenthal	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	0
Wilder	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Waters	4	7	2	2	21	1	4	12
Luettgerodt	5	9	0	0	21	4	3	12
Owsley	3	7	1	2	20	4	1	7
TEAM						4
Totals	31	56	11	19	200	40	26	79

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.

Halftime -- Hawaii 36, Coppin St. 23

3-point goals -- Coppin St. 7-17 (Roberts 3-4, Kennedy 2-6, Britt 1-2, Woodlin 1-2, Otis 0-1, Conyers 0-2), Hawaii 6-16 (Luettgerodt 2-4, Waters 2-4, Nash 1-3, Lojeski 1-5). Personal fouls -- Coppin St. 20, Hawaii 18.

Steals -- Coppin St. 9 (Woodlin 2, Britt, Conyers, Harrison, Kennedy, McKee, Pressey, Roberts), Hawaii 4 (Lojeski, Lowenthal, Luettgerodt, Nash). Blocked shots -- Coppin St. 3 (Pressey 2, Harrison), Hawaii 6 (Gueye 3, Lojeski, Owsley, Verwers). Turnovers -- Coppin St. 14 (McKee 5, Harrison 3, Roberts 2, Britt, Chesnut, Kennedy, Woodlin), Hawaii 20 (Gueye 5, Waters 4, Lojeski 3, Verwers 3, Nash 2, Gibson, Lowenthal, Luettgerodt). Officials -- Lonnie Dixon, Shawn Lehigh, Todd Apo. A -- 3,737.