HONOLULU -- Duke used its superior height to spoil Hawaii's effort to win the 26th annual Rainbow Classic Saturday. The 14th-ranked Blue Devils grabbed the title 87-75.
The Blue Devils were able to complete lob passes to its taller front line to hold off the smaller, but scrappy, Rainbows.
Robert Brickey and Phil Henderson led Duke, 8-2, with 19 each. Alaa Abdelnaby added 18, Bobby Hurley 13 and Christian Laettner had 12.
Hawaii's Chris Gaines led all scorers with 26. Clifford Beaubrun scored 16 and Troy Bowe had 14 for the Rainbows.
Hawaii, 11-2, lost three starters on fowls down the stretch. Duke connected on 14 of 17 free throws to end the game.
The 11-point final margin was the Blue Devil's largest of the night.
Duke placed Hurley, Henderson and Laettner on the all-tournament team with Louis Banks of Cincinnati and Keith Hughes of Rutgers. Hawaii's Gaines was the Classic's outstanding player.
Earlier, Louis Banks and Keith Starks combined for 44 points to lead Cincinnati to a 79-71 win over Rutgers and capture third place in the Rainbow Classic.
The Bearcats pressing defense forced 24 turnovers and Cincinnati, 7-3, closed the game hitting 11 of 15 free throws.
Banks hit for 25 points giving him a total of 71 in the three games. Starks had 19 and Levertis Robinson added 16.
High for Rutgers, 5-6, was Keith Hughes with 25, bringing up his tourney total to 79.
Chad Gallagher's 21 points led Creighton to a 89-84 win over Virginia Tech for the consolation championship and 5th place, while Drake defeated San Francisco, 73-59 for seventh place.
The Creighton Blue Jays, 8-5, scored their last six points from the free throw line to close out the Hokies. Darin Plautz added 18 and Bob Harstad had 17 for Creighton.
Tech's Bmbo Cove was held to 18 points, 10 below his season average.
J. J. Burton added 16 forthe Hokies, who fell to 5-5 on the season.
Paul Weakley came off the bench to score 18 points and lead Drake to victory over San Francisco.
The Bulldogs scored the last 12 points of the first half to wipe out a Dons' lead. Drake opened the second half with an 11-4 run to take control of the game.
Sam Roark and Kevin Sams added 16 each for Drake, 7-6. James Bell had 14 and Shawn Sykes scored 11 for San Francisco, 3-9.
