Christmas is about unwrapping.

For the Hawaii basketball team, it was about unraveling in the second half of an eventual 70-53 loss to Georgia Tech in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

“That was a bad Christmas present, for sure,” said UH acting head coach Chris Gerlufsen, whose Rainbow Warriors (8-5) finished fourth in the eight-team tournament. “Just disappointed in the way we finished the game.”

The ’Bows took a while to solve the Yellow Jackets’ full-court press and 1-2-2 zone in building a nine-point lead and drawing six fouls in the first four minutes of the second half.

Then with a 46-45 lead with 9:27 to play, UH’s Dawson Carper and Georgia Tech’s Jordan Usher became entangled, a separation that occurred when Carper was tossed to the court. Usher, a 6-foot-7 transfer from USC, was ruled to have committed a flagrant-2 foul, resulting in an automatic ejection.

Carper missed both technical free throws. Eddie Stansberry then was fouled, hitting one of two free throws, to push UH’s lead to 47-45.

Michael Devoe’s basket tied it at 47 and, later, Moses Wright’s driving layup gave the Jackets a 49-48 lead they would not relinquish.

“I thought when Usher went out of the game, that was our chance to capitalize on it,” Gerlufsen said. “And instead of capitalizing on it, they used it to their advantage. That riled them up. We almost exhaled when that happened, and they just ramped their energy level up. That’s all a credit to them.”

After Usher’s ejection, the ’Bows did not hit a field goal the rest of the way, missing their final eight shots. They were four of 18 — 22% — in the second half.

“Who we are in our identity, we play very good defense,” Tech coach Josh Pastner said. “That’s what we’ve done in our time here. And so, just when Jordan got that flagrant-2, our defense even ratcheted up another step. So part of that is, you know, it’s interesting in sports. Jordan goes out, it might’ve given us a spark because another guy goes in and the chemistry … instead of us playing small, we went big when Jordan went out. And it actually ended up being in our favor.”

The ’Bows failed to produce from near and far. After the Jackets were assessed their sixth foul early in the second half, the ’Bows’ intent was to attack the low post.

“We talked about continuing to try to get downhill and play off being (near) the bonus,” Gerlufsen said. “And for whatever reason, we didn’t get into situations where we got fouls called.”

The ’Bows’ interior game did not materialize for at least three reasons. A smaller lineup was needed to maneuver through the press. Post players Zigmars Raimo and Carper were in foul trouble. And the ’Bows continued to struggle with their 3-point accuracy. They were one of 15 from behind the arc on Wednesday, and 10 of 54 the past two games. Their best outside shooter — guard Eddie Stansberry — was two of 28 on 3s this tournament.

“It’s our shot selection,” UH wing Justin Hemsley said. “Most of the 3s we take, we’ll hit ’em. You can’t rely on that. We have a lot of teams flying at us on the 3-pointer right now. We have to take the fact we are a good 3-point shooting team, and use it to our advantage by getting inside, and making other teams pay for flying out on long closeouts.”

When the 3s are not falling, Gerlufsen said, “we’re trying to find other ways to manufacture points. I thought we could have gone inside a little more to Zigmars. Dawson was in foul trouble. We had a bunch of guys in foul trouble. I thought our flow in the second half … we were never in rhythm. Foul trouble does that to you sometimes. We’ll revisit everything. We don’t want to live and die by the 3. We don’t want to be defined as that. We’ll look for different ways to manufacture points when we’re not making 3s.”

Four Jackets scored in double figures, led by Devoe’s 18. UH did not have a double-digit scorer for the first time this season.