Eagles fall in Hawaii

HONOLULU – Roderick Flemings scored 22 of his season-high 37 points in the second half to lead Hawaii to a 75-55 college basketball victory over Eastern Washington on Saturday night.

Flemings was 16 of 23 from the field to lead the Warriors (4-3), who shot 51 percent for the game.

Benny Valentine, a 5-foot-7 point guard who entered the game leading the Big Sky Conference with an average of 19.0 points per game, had his first career double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He also had five assists.

But his teammates had only 11 rebounds as the Eagles (6-3) were outrebounded 34-23 in the game.

Eastern led early 13-9, but Hawaii went on an 11-3 run to take the lead for good at 20-16. After Eastern cut the lead to 24-22, an 11-2 run helped the Warriors open a 35-24 advantage.

Eastern went 4:42 without scoring during that stretch and trailed 38-26 at halftime as Valentine had 12 of Eastern’s points and seven of the team’s 10 rebounds.

Hawaii shot 54 percent from the field in the first half.

The Eagles scored the first seven points of the second half to pull within five, but a 6-0 run gave Hawaii a 44-33 advantage. Milan Stanojevic hit back-to-back 3-pointers for the Eagles to cut it to 50-44 with 9:19 to play, but Flemings scored the next nine points as part of Hawaii’s 12-0 run to put the Warriors ahead 59-44 with 6:06 remaining.

The Eagles went 4:31 without scoring during that stretch.

Hawaii took its largest lead with 1:39 to play at 73-52 on a pair of free throws by Ji Xiang.

Hawaii’s starting front line of 6-7 Flemings, 6-9 Bill Amis and 6-8 Petras Balocka combined for 57 points and 14 rebounds.

Eastern’s starting front line of 6-9 Brandon Moore, 6-8 Mark Dunn and 6-3 Andy Genao combined for just 20 points and six rebounds.

In the first half, Hawaii’s front line had 28 points and seven rebounds compared with six points and one rebound for EWU’s.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak that had helped EWU to its best start since the 2002-03 season.

The game marked the season debuts of Eastern’s Adris DeLeon and Chris Busch, both of whom missed the first eight games with eligibility issues.

They each scored three points and combined for three assists.

Saturday’s game was the first of five non-conference games in a 17-day stretch for the Eagles prior to resuming conference play Jan. 2 at Northern Arizona. Eastern sandwiches home games against Missouri-Kansas City on Thursday and Evergreen State on Dec. 22 around a difficult test at Washington of the Pacific 10 Conference on Saturday.

Hawaii 75, Eastern Washington 55

 Eastern Washington (6-3)–Genao 1-2 0-0 2, Dunn 3-3 1-4 8, Moore 5-7 0-0 10, Valentine 6-15 0-0 14, Stanojevic 3-5 0-0 9, Busch 0-2 3-3 3, DeLeon 1-5 0-0 3, Christensen 0-1 2-4 2, Gibson 0-0 2-4 2, Gross 1-3 0-0 2, Brunell 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-45 8-15 55.

Hawaii (4-3)–Mayen 3-6 0-0 8, Amis 4-9 3-3 11, Balocka 2-5 5-8 9, Nitoto 1-5 0-0 2, Flemings 16-23 4-6 37, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Parghalava 0-1 2-2 2, Fitzgerald 0-1 0-0 0, Xiang 0-0 2-2 2, Albrechtson 0-0 0-0 0, Luto 0-0 0-0 0, Campbell 1-3 0-0 2, Adams 0-0 2-2 2, Jespersen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-53 18-23 75.

Halftime–Hawaii 38, Eastern Washington 26. 3-Point Goals–Eastern Washington 7-16 (Stanojevic 3-4, Valentine 2-5, Dunn 1-1, DeLeon 1-4, Busch 0-1, Gross 0-1), Hawaii 3-10 (Mayen 2-4, Flemings 1-3, Amis 0-1, Balocka 0-1, Parghalava 0-1). Fouled Out–None. Rebounds–Eastern Washington 23 (Valentine 12), Hawaii 34 (Balocka 7). Assists–Eastern Washington 11 (Valentine 5), Hawaii 18 (Parghalava 5). Total Fouls–Eastern Washington 20, Hawaii 18. A–5,585.