The Eran Ganot era of Hawaii basketball is off to an encouraging start.
Behind its new coach, UH kicked off the 2015-16 season and the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic with an 87-76 victory over Montana State on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 4,515 watched the Rainbow Warriors take their seventh straight season opener. For the 34-year-old Ganot, a former Saint Mary’s and UH assistant, it was his first official game coaching his own program.
UH saw a 26-point lead trimmed to 11, but the result was never really in doubt despite some shaky free-throw shooting late. UH shot 51.6 percent while operating in its new four-out, one-in offense.
“Obviously, No. 1, pleased with the win,” Ganot said. “You do this long enough, you lose your mind if you don’t enjoy these.
And it’s hard to because of the way we finished the game. But a lot of good things, a lot of things to build off.”
Point guard Roderick Bobbitt, a freshly minted co-captain, turned in a commanding performance. He dished a career-high 14 assists and scored 10 points for his second career double-double. At the other end, last year’s national steals leader swiped the ball five times from the Bobcats of the Big Sky Conference.
“I do (enjoy this system),” Bobbitt said. “We have a lot of pick-and-roll calls and reads, and we space the floor a lot. I really enjoy that myself, and I like bringing a 2 (shooting guard) to the ball (for a pick) and finding a teammate open.”
The Rainbows still showed flashes of the frantic pressure defense that became their calling card in a 22-13 season under interim coach Benjy Taylor last year. UH had 14 steals among 21 MSU turnovers.
Overall, it was a much more convincing performance than the overtime exhibition win against Division II Chaminade last week.
Junior forward Stefan Jankovic had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Swingman Aaron Valdes scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and had three steals. Arizona State transfer Sai Tummala added 17 on 5-for-6 shooting on 3-pointers.
UH continues the round-robin tournament at 4:30 p.m. Sunday against Coastal Carolina (0-1) of the Big South Conference.
The Chanticleers have been to the past two NCAA Tournaments. The Rainbows got off to a great start Friday, making their first six field-goal attempts and first eight free throws. But they closed the game shooting 7-for-18 from the line.
“We’ve done (free throws) every day to finish practice already,” Ganot said. “Obviously we need to continue to work on that. At the end of the day, we wanted to finish this game better. You can list them all: free-throw shooting, halfcourt execution, taking care of the ball. And then we went away from our defense. So the whole combination of that … we were fortunate to be up as much as we were.”
Tummala connected on his first five 3-point attempts, each on a dish served up by Bobbitt, as UH extended its 21-point halftime lead to 26 early in the second half. He finished shooting 6-for-9.
“I know he can shoot it from the top of the 3-point line pretty well, so if you double me and leave him there, then you take your chances,” Bobbitt said.
The graduate student was used sparingly in two years at ASU, where he didn’t score more than six in a game.
“It felt awesome,” Tummala said. “To have a coaching staff that really believes in me, really pushes me, and I put in a lot of work. It felt really good, for sure.”
After staring at a 26-point deficit early in the second half, MSU went on a 12-0 run to get back within 62-48 with 12:27 to play.
When the Bobcats hung around a little longer, Bobbitt and Quincy Smith teamed up for an open-court steal, then fed the ball to a trailing Valdes, who soared over everybody for a one-handed flush and a 76-59 lead with under seven minutes to go.
Valdes also had two dunks off of inbounds plays.
MSU guard Marcus Colbert hit back-to-back deep 3-pointers to bring the visitors within 82-70 with 3:56 to go. He was then knocked out of the game late when Bobbitt fell over Colbert’s head while going for a steal.
UH guard Isaac Fleming played 22 minutes off the bench, scoring six points. He missed nearly two weeks of preseason activities while on a leave of absence.
In an unusual twist of the Rainbow Classic round-robin format, MSU will take on UH Hilo at the Sheriff at 2 p.m. today. It elected to do that instead of playing Coastal Carolina.
Late in the first half, the 6-11 Jankovic stole the ball from the Bobcats near their own bench, pivoted and drove in for a tomahawk jam during a 12-0 UH run.
Bobbitt compiled eight points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals in UH’s dominant first half — then capped off the period by blocking Tyler Hall’s deep 3-point attempt from behind as the buzzer sounded.
UH had 14 assists in the period as it led 48-27 at the break.
Nevada 73, Coastal Carolina 56
Former NBA coach Eric Musselman was a winner with the Wolf Pack in his college coaching debut. Guard D.J. Fenner led the way with a game-high 16 points with eight rebounds.
Forward AJ West chipped in 12 points and 11 rebounds, forward Cameron Oliver came off the bench to contribute 13 points, seven boards and three blocks, and guard Marqueze Coleman scored 14.
The Wolf Pack and Chanticleers of the Big South were locked in a defensive struggle at halftime, but the Pack exploded in the second period for 52 points on 53.1 percent shooting.
Coastal Carolina, which appeared in the past two NCAA Tournaments, was led by Badou Diagne with 15 points, while reserve Marcus Freeman added 10 points and 13 rebounds.
