HONOLULU — In four of its six wins on the season, the Hawaii men’s basketball team had to rally from a second-half deficit to prevail.
That was not necessary on Sunday.
The best first half to date in 2024-25 propelled the Rainbow Warriors past Charlotte, 78-61, in wire-to-wire fashion and into the semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic for the third straight year.
UH (7-3) shot 64.3% in the opening 20 minutes and rode that effort over the American Athletic Conference team on Day 1 of the nationally televised holiday tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center. Forward Gytis Nemeiksa matched his career high of 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting and guard Marcus Greene added 22, his best in a UH uniform, in front of an evening session crowd of 2,844 (5,049 tickets issued).
The generally staid Rainbow Warriors chose a combative metaphor after the game.
“I think we were really ready for this game. We had good practices before that,” Nemeiksa said. “When you’re throwing that punch first, I think it’s easier to play, just to keep that lead and kill them.”
Preceding UH’s game, Nebraska of the Big Ten put the clamps on Murray State of the Missouri Valley Conference for a 66-49 decision in which the Racers set a tournament record for fewest points (14) in a first half.
In the morning session, Oregon State topped College of Charleston 74-65 and Oakland upset Loyola Chicago 72-71 on a last-second putback. OSU (9-2) and Oakland (4-7) meet in Monday’s first semifinal at 3 p.m. with UH and Nebraska (8-2) to follow at 5:30. UH’s game will be on ESPN2.
The last time UH encountered Nebraska was in the opener of the 2014 Diamond Head Classic. Interim coach Benjy Taylor’s Rainbow Warriors beat the Cornhuskers 66-58. It is the rare series with a power conference opponent that UH owns an advantage (7-2 all-time), with the last five meetings going the way of UH dating back to 1979.
“This is a top-25 team,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of Fred Hoiberg’s Huskers. “They’re either close to getting votes or right on the cusp. They’ve been consistent all year, playing their best basketball, tough schedule, well coached, strong, physical. The reward (for winning) is a heck of a challenge.”
UH is going for its second DHC championship game appearance in the 15 years of the event. The only other time the ‘Bows made it there, they won it all for the first and only time in 2022 with JoVon McClanahan’s memorable game-winner against SMU.
Nemeiksa, Greene and Ryan Rapp paced UH in the first half Sunday as the ‘Bows made 15 of their first 21 shots — including five of seven from 3-point range — and jumped out to a 37-21 lead. The advantage was 44-31 at intermission. Greene went 3-for-3 from long range for 14 points in the period, burying a couple of them with a hand in his face near the end of the shot clock.
Greene said he was comfortable taking shots in such situations, and had confidence that even if he missed, his comrades would be in position to do damage, anyway; UH won the offensive glass 10-4 and second-chance points 16-8.
“We wanted to come out with energy, come out with aggression,” said Greene, a transfer from Houston Christian who had a 30-point game last season. “That was our mindset, the first four minutes come out and give them a good punch and then keep the pedal on the metal.”
Nemeiksa, a 6-foot-8 Xavier transfer who stepped into the starting lineup two games prior, threw down an explosive two-handed dunk in traffic from the baseline as part of an 11-2 opening salvo by the ‘Bows.
“I think he’s had a lot of big games consistently. We’ve seen it,” Ganot said. “He hadn’t gotten some of those looks up above the rim, but he can do that as you saw.”
UH never let Charlotte get comfortable in its halfcourt sets as the 49ers were held to 39.6% shooting to UH’s 54.2%.
“I thought that was a big factor in the shooting component,” Ganot said. “We’ve been talking about pushing the ball more. We’ve got some quick guys and bigs who can run. You’re not going to get much of a push if you don’t get stops.”
UH went cold from 3 in the second half (0-for-7) but center Tanner Christensen (five points, eight rebounds) got in on the act and helped push the lead to its largest to that point, 20, with 13 minutes left. Backup big Harry Rouhliadeff came on and pushed the margin to 21 with a turnaround jumper with nine minutes to go.
Backup point guard Tom Beattie supplied nine points in relief of scoreless starter Kody Williams.
The 49ers got it down to 68-55 with 4:38 to play but no closer as Nemeiksa and backup post Jerome Palm supplied buckets to stem the 49ers’ run. UH inserted its reserves with a minute left.
UH won the rebounding battle 37-21 to negate a ball-control advantage by Charlotte (6-5), the NCAA Division I leader in fewest turnovers per game. The 49ers committed only seven to UH’s 11.
Charlotte coach Aaron Fearne, who was an assistant with the 49ers when they came for the 2018 DHC and went 0-3, would not put the blame on the lengthy travel, noting his team was here two days in advance.
“(We) struggled to keep them off the glass. Obviously their size really hurt us and they made some pretty big plays in that first half, too, made some really tough ones,” said Fearne, a native of Queensland, Australia. “When you’re just trying to get some stops and they make some tough ones like that it just puts more pressure on you.”
Guard Jaehshon Thomas led the 49ers with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
Report: Diamond Head Classic to shift to Thanksgiving week
There were strong indications Sunday that ESPN Events, the operator of the Diamond Head Classic, was preparing to announce that the annual UH-hosted event will shift to a different part of the holiday season.
CBS Sports’ college insider Jon Rothstein posted on X on Sunday morning that the DHC will take place on Thanksgiving week starting in 2025. Tournament and UH officials would not confirm the report Sunday, but word around the Stan Sheriff Center was an official announcement could come Monday.
Since its launch in 2009 as a successor to the old eight-team Rainbow Classic, the nationally televised DHC has been held on Dec. 22, 23 and 25 every year, with the exception in 2023 when the dates were moved up a day.
A shift to Thanksgiving week would add to an already packed “Feast Week” in national college hoops that includes tournaments like the Maui Invitational, Battle 4 Atlantis and the new Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. As for other sports, the HHSAA state football championships have been held that weekend along with UH women’s basketball’s Rainbow Wahine Showdown tournament and the Big West women’s volleyball tournament.
However, there has been talk over the last few years that with many conferences going to a larger number of games for league play, getting some teams to come out for a three-game nonconference tournament in late December has become difficult, if not impossible.
Note: This story was updated with details and quotes.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
