If the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team wants to continue defending its home court successfully, it will need to improve defensively.

That's what head coach Riley Wallace said after the Rainbow Warriors defeated Coppin State, 79-67, on Monday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"Point-of-ball defense and rotation has to get better," Wallace said. "And we have to go after loose balls better."

The 'Bows are 1-1, and have surrendered an average of 70.0 points per game.

Hawai'i was never threatened in the Coppin State game, but the 'Bows were frustrated that they could not run away from the Eagles.

"We're a team, but we're not a team defensively yet," sophomore point guard Dominic Waters said. "We're not all one on defense yet. One guy got beat and we're not helping quick enough."

In Hawai'i's man-to-man defensive scheme, if one 'Bow gets beat off the dribble, another is supposed to be there for back up.

"Everybody's worried about, 'OK, I don't want to let my man score — I don't want coach yelling at me for letting my man score,' " senior co-captain Matt Lojeski said. "We're just not trusting each other (defensively), I don't think."

Interestingly enough, the 'Bows appear to have trust in each other on offense. Of the team's 52 field goals this season, 40 have come off assists.

However, Wallace said the "big bugaboo" has been 39 turnovers in two games.

In any case, the 'Bows have the rest of this week to prepare for Oregon State. Hawai'i will host the Beavers on Sunday.

"We got four or five days left to practice for Oregon State," Lojeski said. "We have to be a lot better than we were (Monday) to play with them."

The Beavers are 2-1 this season. They will host Western Athletic Conference preseason favorite Nevada tonight.

NOTES

Senior forward Ahmet Gueye leads Hawai'i with 17.5 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. He is shooting 68.4 percent (13 of 19) from the field. Gueye has 71 career blocked shots (in just 28 games), which is the 10th best total in the program's history.

Matt Lojeski is averaging 16.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.