With a team that already had Matt Gipson and Matt Gibson returning, it looked to be tough for the newest Matt — junior college transfer Matt Lojeski — to find an identity on the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team.

After all, with the 6-foot-9 Gipson known as "Big Matt" and 6-5 Gibson called "Little Matt", who wants to be known as "Middle Matt" at 6-6?

As Lojeski observed, "with all the Matts it can be confusing."

Until yesterday, that is, when the man who goes by "LoJo" announced both his presence and individuality with 20 points to help spark the Rainbow Warriors past fourth-ranked Michigan State, 84-62.

His 7-of-11 shooting, including 6 of 8 from 3-point range, tied him for game-high scoring honors with teammate Julian Sensley.

Beginner's luck it wasn't, said UH coach Riley Wallace. "He's got a good feel for the game and can really do some good things for us out there."

From his first shot, a 3-pointer from the right side 4 minutes, 4 seconds into the game, Lojeski, a Wisconsin native via Eastern Wyoming College, had the hot hand. "That first one was big for me," Lojeski said. "Knocking down that one really gave me a lot of confidence. I knew I had the team behind me and that helped a lot. I didn't know I'd be shooting it that much but I was ready to play whatever role they needed me to play."

The surprise was in the Spartans allowing him as many good looks at the basket as he got. "In junior college I'd see the box-and-one (defense), the double team, you name it," Lojeski said. "I mean, I saw everything. They wouldn't even let me catch (the ball) sometimes. This was like a cakewalk by comparison."

Not by design though, said MSU coach Tom Izzo. "We had a scouting report on him, we just didn't check him very good. Our wings didn't play very good."

The report, Izzo said, was: "that he can shoot it but he's not very good at putting it on the floor. And, we didn't cover him very well."

Wallace said, "As long as we can get the big men down there and suck (the defense) into the post, you're going to have someone open for that little second they need to take a shot. And he took care of it, big time."

Lojeski said he had the Division I debut on his mind from the time he went to sleep. "I was dreaming about the game and saw us winning it. I saw us celebrating, but I honestly didn't have an idea how I'd play. I woke up early, about 6 a.m., and couldn't get back to sleep 'cause I was thinking about the game."

Now, after his debut, they could call the Lojeski, "Welcome, Matt."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.