Hawaii men's basketball opened the 60th OUTRIGGER Rainbow Classic with a lopsided win, beating Bethesda 116-44 on Friday night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. The 72-point margin was described by the university's athletics department as a record-breaking result for the Rainbow Warriors in the early-season tournament.
The victory came on opening night of the event, which has long been one of the marquee early-season tournaments for the program. Hawaii News Now also reported that the win set a new program record for margin of victory, placing the result at the center of the team's first weekend of competition in front of the home crowd. The game was the first of the tournament, and the outcome gave the Rainbow Warriors an immediate statement win as the season began.
Bethesda was unable to keep pace across the game, and the final score reflected a one-sided contest from start to finish. The 116 points scored by Hawaii marked the team's output on the night, while the 44 allowed by Bethesda underscored the scale of the gap between the two sides. Hawaii's offense produced a high-volume night, and the margin grew as the contest went on, leaving little doubt about the result long before the final buzzer.
The matchup drew attention beyond the scoreboard. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser published a photo gallery of the game, offering a visual record of the action and the atmosphere inside Bankoh Arena on opening night. Hawaii News Now's coverage placed the result within the broader context of the Rainbow Classic, which has been held in Honolulu for six decades and serves as one of the state's most closely followed early-season basketball events.
The available summary does not include individual player statistics, a full box score or detailed play-by-play, so scoring leaders and performance breakdowns from the night are not reported here. Information about Bethesda's roster, its season record and its approach to the matchup was not part of the material available for this report. Nor were the remaining Rainbow Classic opponents or the rest of the tournament schedule detailed in the supplied material, leaving the broader implications of the opening result for the event's later rounds unaddressed for now.