Lackadaisical UH triumphs

A 14-point home win Monday night wasn’t good enough for Hawaii coach Benjy Taylor.

"We kind of went through the motions a little bit, and that really bothered me," Taylor said after UH’s 71-57 victory over Southern of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

Taylor shook his head about UH’s season-high 23 turnovers, which were a symptom of stretches of lackadaisical play. A few Rainbow Warriors were under the weather since beating Colorado on Christmas Day for third in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, but the coach didn’t want to hear about it.

He pointed to the all-out effort of senior guard Garrett Nevels, who played with his right wrist area in a cast. Nevels is scheduled Wednesday to have surgery on a torn ligament near his thumb. Nevels had four points and a team-high four assists while focusing on defense and distribution.

"Here’s a guy who has to have surgery in two days, and he found a way not to think about himself, be energetic, play the same way he always plays," Taylor said. "Showed a lot of toughness and a lot of maturity. That’s why he’s our leader. We had some other guys who aren’t 100 percent, but this guy’s having surgery on Wednesday. We had some other guys who didn’t do that, just because they were feeling a little under the weather. That’s a problem."

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,295 witnessed something closer to tennis than basketball at times; they had to crane their necks back and forth repeatedly with the numerous changes of possession. Southern (3-11) had 15 steals and UH 12.

It was sloppy, but UH (11-4) was able to win comfortably nonetheless with a 13-0 run to go up by 24 at the midpoint of the second half. Taylor spread around minutes to 12 players in preparation for Tuesday’s quick-turnaround game against Prairie View A&M (2-10), also of the SWAC. It is the final game of UH’s preconference schedule.

Sophomore center Stefan Jovanovic came off the bench to score a career-best 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting with five rebounds. Forward Aaron Valdes added 13, responding after season lows in points and rebounds against Colorado. Mike Thomas scored nine and blocked a career-high five shots.

Southern, located in Baton Rouge, La., dropped to 0-8 on the road and has yet to beat a Division I opponent this season, although the Jaguars came close in road games at ranked foes Iowa State and Baylor.

Jovanovic completed a three-point play on a dunk and Isaac Fleming followed with a 3-pointer off a turnover as part of a 13-0 run to blow the game open in the second half.

"I feel like we should have won that game by 20, 30 points," Nevels said. "We came out slow in the first half. We were playing down to their level. In the second half we picked it up in the second half and got the lead we should have had."

Nevels said his hand felt OK afterward and that he’d play against Prairie View.

Bobbitt, Negus Webster-Chan and Fleming — UH’s three players feeling sick over the weekend — combined for 16 turnovers.

"Tonight we played like we did five or six weeks ago. We were very individualistic," Taylor said. "We’re going to have to be a team the entire 40 minutes."

Jovanovic and fellow 6-foot-11 big man Stefan Jankovic played together in a new-look alignment for brief stretches.

"I think that’s a really good combination," Jovanovic said. "We have a really good size advantage. If we use that the right way as a team, we can do a lot. … We can really close the paint and stop a lot of players from scoring and rebounding."

Fleming was assessed a flagrant 1 foul, then a double technical with Southern’s Trelun Banks right after Fleming checked into the game a few minutes into the first half.

HAWAII 71, SOUTHERN 57

Halftime — Hawaii 71, Southern 57
3-point goals — Southern 3-13 (Lynch 3-6, Rodgers 0-3, Banks 0-4. Hawaii 6-17 (Bobbitt 2-4, Webster-Chan 2-4, Jankovic 1-2, Fleming 1-3, Valdes 0-1, Jawato 0-1, Thomas 0-2). Steals — Southern 15 (Banks 3, Sam 3, Lynch 3, Hyder 2, Rodgers 2, Monroe, Hopkins). Hawaii 12 (Bobbitt 3, Nevels 2, Fleming 2, Webster-Chan, Valdes, Jawato, Smith, Jovanovic). Turnovers — Southern 24 (Hyder 5, Banks 4, Rodgers 2, Sam 2, Snow 2, Davis 2, Monroe 2, Lynch 2, Hopkins 2, Team. Hawaii 23 (Bobbitt 6, Fleming 6, Webster-Chang 5, Valdes 2, Thomas, Jawato, Jovanovic, Jankovic). Assists — Southern 8 (Hyder 2, Banks 2, Rodgers, Sam, Davis, Monroe). Hawaii 12 (Nevels 4, Bobbitt 3, Webster-Chan 2, Valdes, Fleming, Smith). Blocked shots — Southern 5 (Davis 3, Snow 2). Hawaii 6 (Thomas 5, Jankovic). Technical fouls — Southern 1 (Banks). Hawaii 1 (Fleming). Officials — Tony Padilla, Jeremy Dente, Michael Scyphers. A —4,295.