The football team is apparently not the only one in town that can put up impressive numbers.

The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team scored its most lopsided victory in Riley Wallace's 20-year tenure as head coach with an 85-41 rout of Oregon State yesterday.

A crowd of 4,333 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Rainbow Warriors jump to an astonishing 25-0 lead, and then cruise the rest of the way.

"I think the biggest thing was our defense — holding them to zero," Hawai'i senior co-captain Matt Lojeski said. "We can score points and all that, but just being able to hold them to zero for how long we did, that was the biggest key."

Hawai'i improved to 2-1, while the Beavers dropped to 2-3.

Lojeski led the 'Bows with 24 points, establishing a career-high in points for the second consecutive game. He shot 9 of 15 from the field, and also contributed seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Matt Gibson, who was held scoreless in Hawai'i's previous game, added 14 points and seven rebounds.

"Other than getting out of control two or three times, I thought Gibson played well," Wallace said.

Bobby Nash, who was in an admitted shooting slump through the first two games of the season, added 13 points, including 3-of-3 shooting from 3-point range.

"That's just how it worked," Nash said. "I trusted my teammates to get me the ball ... I made the right cuts and my teammates found me."

Wallace said: "Bobby works hard. It was just a matter of time before he had a coming out party for himself."

The 'Bows passed for 20 assists, out-rebounded Oregon State 40-34, and collected 16 steals, as all 14 players in uniform saw action.

Hawai'i shot 60 percent from the field (30 of 50), while the Beavers shot a dismal 25.4 percent (16 of 63). The only Hawai'i downfall was 22 turnovers.

The game was all but decided in the opening minutes, perhaps even before tip-off.

Two key Oregon State starters — 6-foot-9 center Kyle Jeffers and 6-10 power forward Sasa Cuic — did not start last night due to disciplinary reasons.

They entered the game after 2:14 elapsed, but Hawai'i had already built an 8-0 lead by then. Oregon State head coach Jay John did not want to discuss details of the benching of his two starters.

"Hawai'i was outstanding; it was their defense all the way," John said. "They got us to turn the ball over and it led to fastbreaks and easy baskets.

"I'm not sure we could've played any worse, and Hawai'i played very well. With that, you get a lopsided score."

With 12:53 still remaining in the first half, Hawai'i built the lead to 25-0. At that stage, the 'Bows were 9 of 9 from the field, while the Beavers were 0 of 8 with eight turnovers.

"You get those first couple of shots dropping, get a couple of transition buckets, and then we get in our offense and get a couple of buckets there," Gibson said. "It was a really good start. It set the tone for the whole game."

Oregon State never got closer than 16 the rest of the way.

The 'Bows took a 42-24 lead at intermission, and kept increasing it throughout the second half.

The 44-point margin was the fourth-largest in school history, and the largest since the "Fabulous Five" era of the early 1970s.

Perhaps fittingly, four members of the Fabulous Five — Hawai'i associate coach Bob Nash, Al Davis, Dwight Holiday and John Penebacker — and their UH head coach, Red Rocha, were in attendance last night. Rocha lives in Corvallis, Ore., and attends Oregon State games, and he flew to Honolulu for last night's game.

The 41 points by Oregon State was also the lowest total scored by a Hawai'i opponent since Nevada scored just 40 in 2001.

Josh Tarver led Oregon State with 11 points. Jeffers added 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The 'Bows are scheduled to depart Honolulu today for Anchorage, Alaska. Hawai'i will play three games in the Great Alaska Shootout, starting with a game against Hofstra on Thursday.

"We needed this win really badly in order to go up to Alaska," Wallace said.

NOTES

Hawai'i sophomore walk-on Jack Miller will redshirt this season, Wallace announced yesterday.