Step one is complete.

The University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team got a strong start and never looked back en route to an easy 78-61 win over the Charlotte 49ers at the Stan Sheriff Center to begin the 2024 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Sunday.

Gytis Nemeikša and Marcus Greene combined for 46 of UH's 78 total points. Nemeikša tied his season-high of 24 points while Greene scored 22 for a season-high of his own. Tom Beattie was the next closest with nine off the bench.

Jaeshon Thomas led the 49ers with 16 on 6-for-10 shooting. He was followed by Nik Graves' 13.

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UH came firing out of the gate to score 11 of the first 13 points of the first half which included a Nemeikša slam dunk in traffic. Despite a brief 7-0 run from Charlotte, UH had no intentions of losing and being in the loser's bracket.

Despite seeing their early lead being trimmed to two off a Thomas bucket, UH got five points back via a Greene triple and a Ryan Rapp layup.

UH built its lead to as many as 16 after a Nemeikša triple with 4:01 to go. They remained solid to the tune of just five turnovers committed.

At halftime, UH took a good-sized 44-31 lead.

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Despite sparing the 49ers the first few points of the second half, Tanner Christensen brought the Stan Sheriff Center crowd to its feet with a slam dunk of his own.

UH saw its lead shaved down to nine early, but they spurted a 9-0 run after that to run away and hide from Charlotte. UH was able to balloon its lead to as many as 21 en route to the final arithmetic. It was another good second half for UH, as they committed only six turnovers en route to 11 overall.

UH will return to the Stan Sheriff Center on Monday to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers at 5:30 p.m. HST in the Diamond Head Classic Semifinals. You can watch the game on ESPN2 or listen on ESPN Honolulu.