By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Alika Smith goes over teammate
Mike Robinson to score yesterday.
Tipoff blows
’Bows’ cover
Alika Smith leads the Rainbows
By Pat Bigold
past Illinois State in the final
Star-BulletinThey don't come much quieter or more humble than the University of Hawaii's Alika Smith. There's still a refreshing hint of shyness about the 6-foot-2 senior guard from Kailua when he's asked to talk to the media after a game. He still hasn't found a reason to use the first-person singular in his comments.
But what this native-born star did at the Special Events Arena over the weekend spoke volumes for itself.
Smith scored a game-high 28 points last night to lead UH to an 84-63 rout of Illinois State in the championship of the United Airlines Tipoff.
But Smith wasn't throwing gasoline on a bonfire. He also scored when UH needed it -- when the momentum could have shifted the other way (sound familiar to those of you who watched Friday's 82-65 upset of Indiana?).
He opened the scoring for the Rainbows with a trey and scored nine points in the first quarter as UH jumped to a 22-13 lead before a turnstile count of 8,082 spectators.
He was also there to bail UH out of trouble when Illinois State went on an 8-3 run in the second quarter and cut the lead to 25-24 after a Kenneth Peirson steal and slam-dunk with 6:20 seconds left in the half.
''We weren't surprised they came back on us like that with the weapons they've got," Smith said of the Redbirds, who were nationally ranked a couple of weeks ago.
Rico Hill, considered one of the best power forwards in the country, led the Redbirds with 16 points, and Jamar Smiley added 15.
''Our guys know he's the guy who can do it in those stretches, so they look for him," UH head coach Riley Wallace said of Smith. ''On our offense, all those picks are made for him to come off of. When he was younger, he'd hesitate. He'd come off and look and then take the shot. Now he just comes off and sticks it because he feels the separation as he leaves the man on his picks."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Anthony Carter drives between Illinois State's Dan Miller,
left, and Kenneth Pierson for a basket last night.
But just as he did in his years at Kalaheo High School, Smith deferred to his teammates.''We came up real big as a team when we needed to, and we stretched that lead out in the third quarter," Smith said. "We came up with a lot of loose balls in that quarter. AC (Carter) found me on a couple of shots and I got fouled on a couple, and I'm just glad I hit my free throws."
Smith was seven of eight from the free throw line last night and nine of 10 for the tournament.
From the field, he shot a hot 64 percent for the tournament (16-for-25), including nine of 10 from 3-point range.
''He's a scorer, but he's very unselfish in doing it," Wallace said. ''He loves to make a pass to AC Carter or Micah Kroeger. He gets in on some of AC's passes to score, and he knows we can get our offense going when he gets some steals, so he's pretty much become the total package. He doesn't get beat defensively as much as AC does."
Smith was named co-Most Valuable Player with backcourt mate Carter, who had 19 points and 12 assists last night. For the tournament, Carter was 15-for-31 from the field, including five of eight from 3-point territory. He also totaled 19 assists.
''We're going to take each game one at a time, no matter who we're playing -- Illinois State, Indiana, Tulane, whoever," Smith said. ''Each and every one of us is going to give 110 percent. No one is going to come in here and walk over us, no matter whether they're No. 1, No. 10, No. 20. So when people come in here to play, they've got to look over their shoulders because we're coming right after them.''
Mike Robinson, who had 19 points for the Rainbows, was asked if he thought the country had gotten the message about Hawaii after its impressive weekend.
''If not now, they will eventually," Robinson said.
Wallace said he didn't think the Rainbows were as fired up as they were Friday.
"I had to convince them that even though Indiana is a great team with great tradition and a great coach, that Illinois State should have been higher ranked because they have so much quickness and they're very well-coached," he said.
Indiana 103, Northeast Louisiana 69: Freshman guard Luke Recker had 22 points, four rebounds and five assists as the Hoosiers evened their record at 2-2. The Indians fell to 2-6.
''Recker plays with more enthusiasm than we've had here for three or four years and we need two or three more kids like that," Indiana head coach Bobby Knight said. ''This has not been a group that's been, 'Let's go beat 'em.' It's been more of a, 'Let's go play.' For us in the last few seasons, that has not gotten it done and it did not get it done the other night (against Hawaii).''
Recker scored six consecutive second-quarter points to rally Indiana from a 38-33 deficit and give the Hoosiers the lead for good.
==
Hawaii still not ranked
The University of Hawaii basketball team failed to break into the Associated Press Top 25, despite wins over Indiana, which dropped out of the Top 25, and Illinois State this past weekend.But the team received 40 points -- a 20-point jump over last week.
''I feel we're at least in the bottom 25 of the poll right now," Wallace said last night, insisting UH should have been ranked.
==
Box Score
At Special Events ArenaHawaii 84, Illinois State 63
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Hansell 24 3 7 1 3 1 3 9 Schaefbauer 26 0 3 0 2 1 3 0 Holmstrom 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 1 Smiley 29 6 10 1 2 6 3 15 Stotler 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pierson 15 1 4 0 0 4 2 2 Cartmill 16 1 4 1 3 2 0 3 Crowley 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hein 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 van Velzen 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 Gibbons 18 1 3 0 0 1 3 3 Hill 27 7 17 0 2 4 2 16 Muller 36 4 10 1 4 8 4 10 Team 1 Totals 200 24 62 11 18 29 20 63
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Galloway 20 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 Hook 5 0 1 2 2 2 0 2 Robinson 36 8 12 0 0 6 4 19 Kroeger 29 5 8 0 0 5 3 12 Smith 35 8 10 7 8 5 2 28 Cartwright 11 1 4 0 2 2 1 2 Carter 39 6 11 3 3 5 3 19 G. Miller 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ambrozich 22 0 4 0 0 5 3 2 Moeller 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Team 3 Totals 200 28 51 20 28 36 17 84 Illinois St. 13 15 15 20--63 Hawaii 22 16 27 19--843-point goals--Illinois 4-19 (Hansell 1-3, Smiley 1-2, Cartmill 1-3) UH 8-11 (Smith 5-5, Carter 3-3).Assists--Illinois 11 (Muller 4), UH 21 (Carter 12). Turnovers--Illinois 19, UH 22. Steals--Illinois 9 (Hansell 2, Gibbons 2), UH 6 (Robinson 2, Kroeger 2). Blocked shots--Illinois 3 (Pierson 2), UH 4.
A--9,417. Officials: Paul Janssen, Pat Tanibe, Ronnie Hernandez.
NE Louisiana: Fleming 4-8 2-2 10, Jeter 2-9 1-2 6, Newton 0-2 0-0 0, Anthony 5-13 1-4 13, Hartnett 1-2 0-0 3, Bell 4-7 3-4 11, McGill 2-7 0-0 5, Marceaux 1-2 0-0 3, Chapman 1-5 1-2 3, Childress 2-3 1-2 6, Jones 1-2 0-2 2, Louis 0-1 0-0 0, Shephard 3-5 1-3 7, Hixon 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 26-68 10-21 69.
Indiana: Gladness 4-8 1-1 9, Jiminez 3-5 0-0 7, Collier 9-14 5-5 23, Turner 8-11 1-2 18, Recker 9-13 4-4 22, Miller 1-5 2-2 4, Mandeville 0-1 0-0 0, Lewis 1-2 0-0 2, Guyton 2-6 3-3 8, Eggers 1-2 0-0 2, Richardson 3-5 0-0 6, Patterson 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 42-74 16-17 103.
NE Louisiana 21191415-- 69
Indiana 29183224--103
3-point goals--NE Louisiana 7-24 (Anthony 2-7, Childress 1-1, Marceaux 1-1, Hartnett 1-2, McGill 1-3, Jeter 1-8, Chapman 0-2). Indiana 3-12 (Guyton 1-2, Turner 1-3, Jiminez 1-3, Recker 0-1, Lewis 0-1, Miller 0-2). Fouled out--None. Rebounds--NE Louisiana 39 (Jeter 8), Indiana 41 (Gladness 7). Assists--NE Louisiana 13 (Jones 4), Indiana 26 (Guyton 6). Total fouls--NE Louisiana 17, Indiana 17.
1997-98 Rainbow Men’s Basketball
Schedule and Recordhttp://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
