The Hawaii men’s basketball team had an antidote for the frenetic play of Texas-Rio Grande Valley in the heat of Palm Springs, Calif.: the red-hot shooting of Matthue Cotton.

Cotton, a senior wing who transferred into the program from Yale in the offseason, enjoyed his most productive outing as a Rainbow Warrior in UH’s 76-57 win over UTRGV on the first day of the Acrisure Invitational on Friday.

The graduate student hit four straight long-range attempts among his five makes from beyond the arc in the first half in scoring 19 of his 23 points. That carried his new team to a 43-23 halftime lead and the ‘Bows (4-0) were happy to go basket-for-basket with the Vaqueros (2-4) in the second half.

Cotton, who missed last season as he recovered from a shoulder injury, was scoreless in the season opener against Hawaii Hilo but has increased his scoring in each successive game. He shot 7-for-10 from the field, 5-for-7 on 3s and 4-for-4 at the line. Defensively, he supplied two blocks and two steals.

“I’m happy for him,” UH coach Eran Ganot told Spectrum News in a postgame phone interview from outside Acrisure Arena. “He’s been working and got some looks today. And kept making them — was big for both ends, to be honest. When they were keying on him more in the second half, Noel (Coleman) got loose.”

Coleman scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half. Center Bernardo da Silva added 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting while forward Justin McKoy grabbed 14 rebounds. The lead grew to as many as 26 points on three occasions.

UH will face San Diego (5-1) of the West Coast Conference, Coleman's team from his freshman year, in the four-team tournament’s winners bracket at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. USD beat Arkansas State 71-57 in Friday’s second game.

UTRGV, a Western Athletic Conference program formerly known as Texas-Pan American, prefers a ragged, up-and-down style and has applied it to become one of the nation’s leaders in free-throw attempts the last two years. The Vaqueros were 14-for-20 from the line, with 13 of the attempts coming in the second half. UH was 11-for-13.

“They’re physical,” Ganot said. “We did a good job answering the call in that regard for most of (it). We got them off the line and made them shoot tough shots. Did a good job on the glass. When you can beat their first line, which is not easy, you can get some shots at the rim and open 3s and our guys have been shot-ready and playing unselfish and really proud of them.”

Elijah Elliott led UTRGV with 18 points, 16 of which came after halftime.

After finishing the tournament in Palm Springs, UH will make its way to Salt Lake City for Thursday’s game against Utah at the Delta Center. 

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.