Monday, February 16, 1998

UH looks alive,
ties for No. 5

Hawaii improves its chances
of a WAC Tournament berth

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

Amnesia is good.

The Hawaii men's basketball team had forgotten how to win; forgotten the magic that led to an 11-1 record.

The Rainbows' 3-6 Western Athletic Conference start included Thursday's 42-point shellacking at Texas Christian, their third straight loss.

Somehow, they managed to forget about the program's worst defeat (126-84) in 21 years. Then something triggered Hawaii's collective memory when it played Southern Methodist on Saturday.

Total recall came in the form of a 94-82 win over the Mustangs. The victory had the Rainbows feeling a lot better about themselves when they returned to Honolulu yesterday.

"There's no doubt we needed that one," assistant coach Jeff Law said. "If we had let SMU get away, it would be extremely ugly right now. But that one win has changed the whole outlook on a lot of things for the rest of the season. It's put some goals -- like the WAC Tournament -- back into focus.

"But we need to continue to play like we did Saturday, continue to regroup and do the things we used to do. We need to keep playing as a team, playing as a unit and getting total play from everyone on the floor."

The new unified front included a "no comment" policy when approached by members of the media at the Honolulu International Airport yesterday. Other than senior forward Micah Kroeger's comments that "the winning feeling was back and we have to keep it going," the Rainbows were mum on the remaining four games and the upcoming WAC Tournament.

The standings, at least, have plenty to say. Hawaii (15-7 overall, 4-6 WAC) has climbed into a fifth-place tie with San Diego State in the Pacific Division. The Rainbows are hoping to win at least three of their next four games to leapfrog into a tie with SMU, which is currently No. 4.

If UH tied SMU, the Rainbows would win the tiebreaker, having beaten the Mustangs twice. But that's the future. The Rainbows are focusing on Thursday's game against seventh-place Rice (6-18, 3-7) at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"Not a lot of teams would have been able to regroup like we did after the TCU loss," Law said. "The thing is, the kids felt pretty good about the way they played at TCU. They felt they had played pretty hard. It was just a matter of six to seven minutes when we did nothing and they got red-hot.

"We tried to accentuate that they did play hard going into Saturday's game and use that to stay together. At SMU, they came out feeling good and everything fell into place."

It was the first time in a long time that Hawaii had a complete team effort. Because of an injury to Eric Ambrozich, Mike Robinson and Erin Galloway started together for the first time this season.

Galloway responded with 16 points, including several skying put-back jams. Galloway scored six points during an 8-4 run that gave UH what appeared to be a comfortable 86-65 lead with 2:30 left.

Associate head coach Bob Nash, subbing for the recuperating Riley Wallace, began to clear his bench against the Mustangs' subs. SMU ripped off 10 unanswered points in the next 80 seconds and closed to 88-78 with 47.7 seconds to go.

But the UH starters returned and made all six of their free throws to preserve the win.

Four UH starters were in double figures: Anthony Carter (24), Alika Smith (23), Galloway (16) and Kroeger (13).

"What it has come down to is it doesn't matter who starts or who finishes as long as the people on the floor are going to give 100 percent," Law said. "That's kind of the new feeling we have. Actually, it's the new old feeling because we liked that old feeling."

Wallace was under doctor's orders to take a two-week break from coaching, a break that concludes Wednesday. He said last week he'd like to be back for Thursday's game.

How they stand

Current Pacific Division standings (the top six teams earn a berth in the WAC Tournament):

1. TCU 11-0
2. Fresno State 7-3
2. Tulsa 7-3
4. SMU 5-6
5. Hawaii 4-6
5. San Diego St. 4-6
7. Rice 3-7
8. San Jose St. 0-10

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1997-98 Rainbow Men's Basketball Schedule

http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu