GAME NOTES: The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors try to pick up a rare win on the mainland on Saturday as they clash with the BYU Cougars in a non-conference affair at EnergySolutions Arena.

Winners of seven of their first nine games on the schedule, the Warriors are actually enjoying a three-game win streak at the moment, thanks to a 75-60 victory over Delaware State earlier this week at the Stan Sheriff Center. After this outing Hawaii will be dormant for nearly two weeks before picking up again with local foe, Chaminade, at the Blaisdell Center on Dec. 19, just days before tipping off the Diamond Head Classic.

As for the Cougars, they too have dropped just two games in the early going, but in their case both of those decisions came in overtime against the likes of San Diego State and Purdue. Since the loss against the Boilermakers, BYU has responded with consecutive victories over Eastern Kentucky and Utah State, the latter coming by 10 points (91-81) on the road Tuesday night.

BYU owns a 33-14 advantage in the all-time series with the Warriors, posting a 78-57 victory in the most recent encounter four years ago.

Against a Delaware State program that traveled well beyond the continental United States in order to appear at the Stan Sheriff Center earlier this week, the Rainbow Warriors had little trouble coming up with a 15-point win. Aaron Valdes led all scorers with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor, adding seven rebounds, while Garrett Nevels and Negus Webster-Chan pitched in with 15 and 11 points, respectively, as Hawaii led by as many as 23 points early in the second half of a game that it led wire-to-wire.

Over the course of nine games, Valdes has led Hawaii in scoring four times already and has also been the leader more often than not on the glass, which is why he is at the top of both categories for the Warriors at the moment with 15.3 ppg and 7.4 rpg. Nevels checks in with 12.9 ppg as the only other double- digit scorer for the program, although his 40.7 percent accuracy from the field is dwarfed by Valdes who has knocked down 58.8 percent.

Against in-state rival Utah State earlier this week at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, the Cougars again reached the 90-point plateau, but only won by 10 points against the host Aggies. As has become more and more the norm, Tyler Haws led the way for the visitors with 35 points, shooting 10- of-19 from the floor and a near-perfect 12-of-13 at the free-throw line. The man who was perfect at the charity stripe (10-of-10) was Kyle Collinsworth as he tallied 20 points, to go along with 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals. Off the bench, Anson Winder tacked on 17 points in 29 minutes for a program that shot only 5-of-25 from long range, but turned the ball over just six times and outscored USU at the foul line by a 34-21 margin.

Shooting an impressive 50.8 percent from the field and 91.4 percent at the charity stripe through eight games, Haws is again one of the nation's top point producers with his 23.8 ppg. Winder has been a huge asset as a reserve with his 14.6 ppg as he not only shoots 51.9 percent beyond the arc (14-of-27) but adds some strength on the glass as well with 4.1 rpg. Chase Fischer matches Winder in point production and Collinsworth does it all from his 12.3 ppg, to 6.1 rpg, a team-best 36 assists and 20 thefts in his seven appearances.

Rarely does a trip to the mainland work out for the Warriors and given how explosive the BYU offense can be, the prospects do not look good again this weekend.