It seemed plausible at halftime that Hawaii’s long record of futility on the road against ranked teams — especially against the Pac-12 — could come to an end.
No. 13 Oregon had other ideas and started the second half on a 20-1 run to wipe out the Hawaii men’s basketball team 89-64 on Saturday in a nonconference game at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore.
Payton Pritchard led five players in double figures with 20 points for the Ducks (7-2), who had lost their previous two games.
Hawaii (6-3), which had won its previous three, extended two dubious streaks in the loss. The ’Bows are now 1-50 all-time away from home against Pac-12 (Pac-10) schools and 1-32 on the road against ranked opponents.
‘Was really happy with the first half. I thought we competed and followed the game plan and executed well enough on both ends to be a tie game in the first half,” Hawaii interim coach Chris Gerlufsen said in a postgame phone call. “I thought they really turned up their energy and went on that run to start the second half and we didn’t respond the right way and never really recovered.”
Senior Eddie Stansberry scored a game-high 24 points and hit a career-high seven 3-pointers, making four of his first five to help UH stay tight with the Ducks through the opening 20 minutes.
Stansberry hit two 3s and Samuta Avea and Justin Webster each hit from long range to give UH a 13-5 lead to open its second road game of the season against a Power 5 opponent. Hawaii, which lost at Illinois 66-53 last month in another game that was tied at half, hadn’t played two true road games against Power 5 schools in more than 30 years.
“I think we showed in both of those games that we’re capable of playing with anyone,” Gerlufsen said. “We need to learn to put 40 minutes together against a quality opponent. When you’re playing a high major team you can have no four-minute lapses.”
Hawaii’s lapse took a little longer than that, as Oregon came out running in the second half and the up-tempo pace led to 55 points after the break.
The Ducks shot 63% (32-for-51) from the field and were perfect from the foul line (12-for-12) in the second half. Hawaii took nearly seven minutes before making its first field goal.
“We had a lapse on both ends of the floor,” Gerlufsen said. “We need to respond better when teams go on a run.”
Dawson Carper finished with 11 points and five rebounds for UH and Webster had 12 points to lead all UH players off the bench.
Point guard Drew Buggs had eight assists to lead the ’Bows but was 0-for-8 from the field and did not score.
Hawaii had won the previous five meetings against the Ducks.
UH will return home to play Samford on Dec. 15 before starting the Diamond Head Classic on Dec. 22 against UTEP. Hawaii could play two more Power 5 schools in the tournament that runs through Christmas.
“The lesson I take away is when we’re locked in and dialed in, we can play with anyone,” Gerlufsen said. “Obviously not happy with the result today, but we need to move forward and keep getting better.”