Hawaii rallies past San Jose State, will face Pacific for Rainbow Classic title
On a monster night in Manoa, center Tanner Christensen boosted the Hawaii basketball team to an 80-69 victory over San Jose State in Sunday’s second round of the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 2,735 saw the Rainbow Warriors win their second in a row to open the season and create a showdown against Pacific, also 2-0, in tonight’s tournament finale.
“Tanner was a monster,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of the 6-foot-10, 255-pound transfer from Utah Tech. “You’ve heard me say, ‘a rising tide lifts all ships.’ He set a presence for us with physicality, and the guys followed suit.”
Christensen produced 20 points on dunks and pivot-pivot-pivot inside moves, suctioned eight rebounds, and sabotaged the Spartans’ low-post rotation. SJSU center Robert Vaihola was limited to four points in 18 minutes, 5 seconds after being assessed two fouls in the first half, a third 2 minutes into the second half, and a fourth with 15:40 to play. After an extensive stay on the bench, Vaihola fouled out with 3:48 to go.
“Foul troubles hurt us,” SJSU coach Tim Miles said. “And the way we got the fouls, too. Some offensive fouls didn’t help us.”
Christensen drew six fouls.
“The big kid hurt us inside,” Miles said. “I thought he was strong, and we really couldn’t get to him with a double team, either.”
The Spartans used an aggressive man-to-man defense to attack the perimeters of the ’Bows’ four-out schemes. But with Christensen or 6-10 forward Harry Rouhliadeff pulling away a post defender, UH point guard Tom Beattie had an unobstructed path through the lane. The ’Bows scored 40 paint points.
“We have bigs that create so much gravity,” said Beattie, who scored 16 points. “They were drawing so many people — like Harry, Tanner and Jerome (Palm) — that it’s easy for us to go downhill and make a play.”
UH wing Akira Jacobs, who scored 18 points in Friday’s opener, missed his seven shots, including five from behind the arc. But Ganot said the Spartans’ had to respect Jacobs’ drives and shooting, and could not leave him alone.
“You don’t think for a second (Jacobs) being out there opened up some things for everybody?” Ganot said. “You have to honor him. There are some stuff that doesn’t show up in the box score. Akira Jacobs just standing there with his hands up is impactful for our team. He’s starting to know that.”
UH was down 56-54 when Christensen tied it with a driving layup with 8:14 to play.
Rouhliadeff then buried a 3 from the top of the key to give the ’Bows a 59-56 lead they would not relinquish. The ’Bows outscored the Spartans 21-13 the rest of the way. Christensen punctuated the outcome with a dunk off a Marcus Greene assist with 24.4 seconds to go.
Rouhliadeff, making his second consecutive start, has expanded his game beyond the paint. He said he worked on his outside shooting during the offseason. He was 2-for-4 on 3s, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
“He works super hard on (his shooting),” Beattie said of Rouhliadeff. “He’s in the gym every day putting up shots.”
Miles said his team still is seeking better cohesion. Vaihola missed last season because of an injury. Eleven Spartans began their NCAA careers at other schools.
“Really, that last 16, 17 possessions, I thought we took some bad shots that led into some good offense for them,” Miles said. “We fell asleep on (defending) a couple 3s, some late shot-clock stuff. I was pleased tonight if we were a high school team. For 32 minutes, I thought we were pretty good.”
