Rainbows drop out
By Cindy Luis
of AP poll
Star-BulletinRiley Wallace picked the Denver Broncos to win yesterday's Super Bowl. At least the University of Hawaii basketball coach had one team that didn't fade on him in the second half.
Saturday, for the fifth game in a row, the Rainbows came out uninspired after taking a lead at intermission. For the third time in five games, the lapse during the opening minutes of the second half cost Hawaii.
This time it was a 64-63 defeat at Tulsa, which dropped Hawaii to 13-4 overall, 2-3 in the WAC, and out of today's Associated Press Top 25. They were ranked No. 24 last week but tumbled to 34th.
"It's not that we're not fired up in the locker room at halftime," Wallace said after the team returned home yesterday. "They were pumped. They knew what needed to be done, the same things that they were doing in the first half.
"It's a matter of coming out and getting after it. We just didn't get it done."
Not from the free throw line (12 of 21). Not from the 3-point line (3 of 16)
And not when it counted with 17.4 seconds left. Hawaii had two shots at winning the game in the waning moments, but Erin Galloway's short jumper bounced off the front of the rim and Anthony Carter's 3-pointer hit the back of the rim as time ran out.
"I just missed it," said Galloway, who also missed tying the game with 35.9 seconds left when he made just one of two free throws. "I was trying to catch the ball and go up strong. There was some bumping but the refs weren't calling that all game.
"Everyone is a little down right now. It always hurts, losing a close one like that. Everyone felt we should have won. We didn't play well, got off to a bad start again in the second half. We'll be all right. But we can't keep winning one then losing one."
That's been one of the disturbing patterns for Hawaii: winning every other game since finishing 1997 10-1. Another is the drop-off in free-throw shooting, from 77 percent (17th in the nation) to a combined 65 percent in last week's losses to TCU and Tulsa.
And then there's the second-half slump.
"I don't know what it is, but if we could just get rid of those first five minutes, we'd be undefeated (in the WAC), said senior guard Alika Smith, who led Hawaii with 14 points. "It's not that we're preparing differently for games since we've been ranked, but everyone is playing their best game against us because we are ranked.
"The odds are in our favor right now. We've got the next three games at home, three winnable games at home. If we can get these, we'll be in good shape.
"If we're not ranked, teams won't be putting on that extra pressure to beat us and we can just go out and play our game like we did in the beginning of the year."
Hawaii plays three games in five days, beginning with Saturday's contest against Pacific Division bottom-dweller San Jose State (0-4, 2-14). Next Monday, it's Fresno State (10-7, 3-1) followed by San Diego State (8-8, 2-3) a week from Wednesday.
"We just have to come out, play hard and get those wins," said Carter.
The senior guard had just two of his 13 points in the second half. He had a good look from 3-point range but may have taken the shot sooner than he needed to (4.3 seconds were left).
"I really didn't know how much time was left," said Carter, 0 for 5 from 3-point range against the Golden Hurricane. "I didn't have time to look (at the game clock). It was a good shot, just a little too far. I thought it was going in."
So did Wallace.
"Nine out of 10 times, AC will make that," Wallace said of Carter's shot. "It seemed to hang up there forever. I thought it was going in.
"But that's the difference between a good year and a great year. Last year, some of our late shots dropped. These haven't."
Hawaii shot just 30 percent from the field in the second half, making just one basket in the final nine minutes. That was Smith's 3-pointer, his second of the six shots he took from long range.
"We've got to get Alika shooting more," said Wallace. "Even in practice, he's not shooting the ball. He's a team player all the way but he can't keep passing up his shot. He's too valuable of a shooter and we don't have another guy with his consistency from the outside.
"He's got a future in (pro) basketball. This team has a future in (postseason) basketball, but we need Alika to shoot more to get us there."
WAC STANDINGS
Men
Pacific Division
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Texas Christ. 4 0 1.000 15 4 .789 Fresno State 3 1 .750 10 7 .588 Tulsa 3 2 .600 11 8 .579 So. Methodist 2 2 .500 13 3 .813 Hawaii 2 3 .400 13 4 .765 San Diego St. 2 3 .400 8 8 .500 Rice 2 3 .400 5 13 .278 San Jose St. 0 4 .000 2 14 .125
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Utah 5 0 1.000 17 0 1.000 New Mexico 4 1 .800 14 3 .824 Colorado State 3 2 .600 15 3 .833 Wyoming 2 3 .400 12 5 .706 Texas-El Paso 2 3 .400 11 6 .647 Nevada-LV 2 3 .400 9 8 .529 Air Force 1 4 .200 8 7 .533 Brigham Young 1 4 .200 6 13 .316
Tulsa 64, Hawaii 63
San Diego State 62, Rice 59
Utah 67, UNLV 54
New Mexico 76, UTEP 69
Colorado State 53, Wyoming 46
Air Force 80, Brigham Young 61
Fresno State 90, Texas 82Tonight's games
TCU at SMU
Chaminade at UNLV
San Jose State at San Diego State
Rice at TCU
Tulsa at SMU
UNLV at Colorado State
New Mexico at Brigham Young
Air Force at Wyoming
UTEP at Utah
San Jose State at Hawaii, 7:37 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
Rice at SMU
Fresno State at San Diego State
Air Force at Colorado State
UNLV at Wyoming
UTEP at Brigham Young
First-place votes in parentheses POLL
AP Men's Top 25
-- Record -- Pts -- Pvs
1. Duke (47) -- 18-1 -- 1,724 -- 1
2. North Carolina (18) -- 20-1 -- 1,686 -- 2
3. Utah (2) -- 17-0 -- 1,527 -- 4
4. Stanford (2) -- 18-0 -- 1,511 -- 5
5. Kansas (1) -- 22-3 -- 1,474 -- 3
6. Arizona -- 17-3 -- 1,450 -- 6
7. Kentucky -- 18-2 -- 1,389 -- 7
8. UCLA -- 15-3 -- 1,169 -- 9
9. Connecticut -- 17-3 -- 1,128 -- 8
10. Purdue -- 17-4 -- 1,084 -- 12
11. Princeton -- 13-1 -- 1,050 -- 11
12. Mississippi -- 14-2 -- 985 -- 13
13. South Carolina -- 13-3 -- 832 -- 14
14. New Mexico -- 14-3 -- 772 -- 17
15. Arkansas -- 16-3 -- 739 -- 18
16. Iowa -- 15-4 -- 637 -- 10
17. West Virginia -- 17-3 -- 528 -- 23
18. Cincinnati -- 15-3 -- 502 -- 21
19. Michigan -- 15-5 -- 483 -- 16
20. Syracuse -- 15-4 -- 341 -- 15
21. Rhode Island -- 13-4 -- 284 -- 22
22. Michigan St. -- 13-4 -- 266 -- --
23. Maryland -- 12-6 -- 250 -- --
24. Xavier -- 12-5 -- 173 -- 19
25. Indiana -- 14-5 -- 153 -- --Others receiving votes: George Washington 134, Florida St. 120, Texas Christian 82, Massachusetts 36, Oklahoma 28, Clemson 24, St. John's 23, Ball St. 21, Hawaii 21, Washington 18, Illinois 12, Colorado St. 11, Florida 11, Missouri 10, Georgia 9, Oklahoma St. 9, Tennessee 8, Murray St. 7, Saint Louis 4, W. Michigan 4, Dayton 3, Ill.-Chicago 3, Santa Clara 3, Temple 3, Utah St. 3, Vanderbilt 3, Georgia Tech 2, Coll. of Charleston 1.
1997-98 Rainbow Men’s Basketball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
