Scotty Pippen Jr. recorded 21 points and four steals to lead Vanderbilt to a 68-54 victory over Hawaii on Wednesday night in the first round of the Diamond Head Classic at Honolulu.
Shane Dezonie added 10 points in the wire-to-wire victory for the Commodores (7-4), who will face BYU in Thursday’s semifinals. The Cougars (10-2) defeated South Florida 54-39 in their first-round contest.
Noel Coleman, a junior, scored a career-best 31 points for Hawaii (4-4) and made a career-high six 3-pointers for the second consecutive game.
Junior Madut added 10 for the Rainbow Warriors, who were plagued by 21 turnovers.
Vanderbilt connected on 43.9 percent of its shots but was just 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) from 3-point range. The Commodores, who led by as many as 19 points, committed 13 turnovers.
Hawaii made 43.8 percent of its shots and was 8 of 25 (32 percent) from behind the arc. Coleman was 12 of 19 from the field, including 6 of 10 from deep.
The Rainbow Warriors will face South Florida (4-6) in a consolation game on Thursday.
Hawaii scored the first seven points of the second half to move within 35-31 with 16:58 remaining in the game.
Rodney Chatman buried a 3-pointer 21 seconds later to start a 10-4 run as Vanderbilt pushed its lead back to 10 with 14:09 left.
The Rainbow Warriors made another charge, and Coleman’s layup cut the Commodores’ lead to 52-47 with 7:14 left.
However, Hawaii went more than 3 1/2 minutes without a field goal and Vanderbilt went on a 13-2 run. A stellar putback by Pippen made it 61-48 with 4:24 left, and Pippen completed the run with four free throws to make it 65-49 with 3:54 remaining.
Coleman scored on a layup 17 seconds later to end the Rainbow Warriors’ drought.
Pippen scored 13 first-half points to help Vanderbilt hold a 35-24 lead at the break.
Trey Thomas drained two 3-pointers during a 14-0 run as the Commodores opened up a 28-9 lead. Pippen capped the burst with a basket with 6:36 remaining in the half.
Coleman then erupted by scoring all of Hawaii’s points during a 10-2 surge as the Rainbow Warriors moved within 11 with 3:54 left.
Coleman connected on his fifth trey of the half with 1:41 left to cap his 19-point first half.
–Field Level Media
