Another season of basketball has begun.

The University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team turned a giant corner after two lethargic exhibition wins to turn back the Life Pacific Warriors, 96-61, at the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday.

Akira Jacobs' 20 points led a pack of six Rainbow Warriors who scored double figures. Gytis Nemeiksa and Kody Williams each chipped in 14, while Tom Beattie had 13, Tanner Christensen had 11, and Jerome Palm had 10.

Rico Hopping, Vince Fier, and Albert Matute led Life Pacific with 14 points each. All three made five field goals from the field in the loss.

UH and LPU were neck and neck in the opening few minutes of the first half. UH erased the turnover troubles from the two prior exhibition games and made a bold statement. LPU held a 10-9 lead early before UH uncorked a decisive 18-2 run to ultimately pull away and cruise to the win.

That run got ignited by back-to-back triples from Williams and Jacobs and turned into 12 unanswered points. Williams hit four triples in that first half alone. In total, UH banked eight triples in the first half alone.

The first half ended with UH up by a whopping 27 over LPU, 56-29. It was a big turnaround for UH after scoring less than 40 in the first halves in the two exhibition games prior.

Any hope LPU had of coming back on UH was immediately quashed, as more UH players scored in the second half. UH's lead got as high as 37 en route to shooting a strong 65% overall.

UH's offense and defense were on par. They committed just five turnovers all game long, outrebounded LPU 43-20, and outscored LPU on second-chance points 23-0. UH also outscored LPU on points in the paint 52-16.

Hawaiʻi will return to the Stan Sheriff Center on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 5 p.m. HST against former Western Athletic Conference foe, the San Jose State Spartans. You can listen to the game on ESPN Honolulu, or watch the game on Spectrum Sports.