HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team continued its torrid start to the 2025-26 season with a hard-earned 66-61 win over UTEP Saturday night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
In their final game of the calendar year and their final nonconference contest, the Rainbow Warriors improved to 10-2 with their sixth straight win.
After a dominating run of home wins, UH found itself down by double-digits against the Miners, but dug deep to keep its win streak going.
UH was powered by senior captain
Harry Rouhliadeff who tied his career high with 22 points, while adding seven rebounds and a block.
Dre Bullock added 15 points and grabbed six rebounds.
UH scored the first five points of the game and were up 7-3 a little more than three minutes into the contest. But suddenly the 'Bows went ice cold, going scoreless for more than nine minutes and missing 13 straight shots. The Miners scored 15 unanswered points and took a double-digit lead before Rouhliadeff hit a three-pointer to end UH's drought.
UH, however, got out of its offensive funk and scored 18 points in the final 7:41 of the half, capped by a buzzer-beating floater by
Hunter Erickson to trail just 29-25 at the break. Rouhliadeff scored 12 points – nearly half the team's output – in the first frame.
The 'Bows came out strong out of the locker room scoring the first five points to take the lead, and went up 38-34 on Bullock's three-point play at the 15:10 mark. UTEP answered back with a 13-4 run, punctuated by back-to-back three-pointers from JT Thomas to go up 47-42.
UH responded with a 10-2 run surge and reclaimed the lead when
Aaron Hunkin-Claytor knocked down a three-pointer from the corner that pushed the 'Bows ahead 50-49 with just under five minutes left.
UTEP trailed by a point at 52-51 with 4:42 left when Rouhliadeff took over. The senior scored UH's next seven points and stretched the lead to seven with back-to-back layups. A dunk by Gytis Nemeiksa opened up a 63-54 margin with 1:24 left and Bullock drained three free throws down in the final 22 seconds to seal the win.
After its dreadful shooting in the first half, UH's offense got back in gear after the break when they shot 52 percent and finished at 40.4 percent for the game.
The Rainbow Warriors will now have an 18-day layoff before returning to action and resuming Big West play at UC Riverside (Jan. 1) and UC San Diego (Jan. 3).
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