The University of Hawai'i men’s basketball team showed its ability to rebound in an 81-62 victory over Northwestern State tonight.

The Rainbow Warriors had their best rebounding game of the season in the win, grabbing 53 to the Demons’ 38.

A crowd of 2,579 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Rainbow Warriors rebound from a two-game losing streak to improve to 7-6.

Dwain Williams led Hawai'i with 28 points, giving him 64 in his last two games.

Several other ’Bows contributed: Paul Campbell had 14 points and 15 rebounds, Brandon Adams had 12 points and eight rebounds, Jeremy Lay scored 15, and Petras Balocka grabbed 11 rebounds.

The ’Bows played without perhaps their two most valuable players in point guard Hiram Thompson and forward Roderick Flemings.

Thompson sat out with a concussion; Flemings missed his second consecutive game with an injured knee. Not surprisingly, Hawai'i struggled without them on the court early on.

In the first half, the ’Bows shot just 29 percent from the field, and committed 11 turnovers. Yet, they somehow managed to take a 29-23 lead at intermission.

The ’Bows shot just 33.9 percent from the field and committed 17 turnovers for the game.

The Demons got as close as 41-40 with 12:47 remaining in the second half, but the ’Bows never lost the lead.

The ’Bows used a 10-2 surge to increase their lead to 56-45 with 8:05 remaining. The Demons never got closer than 10 points after that.

Charles Clark led the Demons (5-6) with 14 points.

Hawai'i will open the Western Athletic Conference season against Idaho on Saturday.