Saturday, November 28, 1998
Iona breezes past
By Jerry Campany
Hawaii Pacific
Special to the Star-BulletinUndermanned Hawaii Pacific was taken to school by Division I contender Iona.
The Sea Warriors hosted Iona in the first round of the HPU Thanksgiving Classic and were trounced, 92-72.
Hawaii Pacific (2-1) came into the game against their toughest opponent of the season without power forward Scott Kato because of a broken nose, and hung with the Gaels until point guard Shannon Lee found himself in foul trouble early in the second half.
"With Scott Kato in there it would have been a different story," HPU head coach Tony Sellitto said. "We made too many mistakes to win, but it would have been a closer game."
Without Kato to help, Sea Warrior center Cordell Ray played an inspired game in the paint, contributing four blocks and contesting nearly every shot while tossing in nine points. Ray also pulled down 12 rebounds in the face of an intimidating Iona frontcourt that outrebounded the smaller Sea Warriors. 67-38.
"Cordell (Ray) threw his body around and hung in there," HPU high scorer Willie Flowers said. "We just didn't give him any help."
Flowers added eight rebounds to his 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
Ray was recruited by Iona out of junior college, but they lost interest after new coach Jeff Ruland came in. If Ray was looking for a little revenge or a lot of respect, he got it.
"He (Ray) is a great player, the whole team gave us all that we could handle," Ruland said.
Ivo Kresta paced Iona (1-0) with 23 points and 11 rebounds and Kashif Hameed battled Ray to earn 22 points and 12 boards. Iona moves on to face Virginia Commonwealth today at 4:30 at the Blaisdell.
Southern Mississippi 61, Hofstra 60: The Golden Eagles (3-0) fought through poor shooting before turning to their defense to turn back the Flying Dutchmen (1-2).
"We created enough backcourt pressure to force enough turnovers at the end to pull it out," Southern Mississippi head coach James Green said.
The Golden Eagles trailed Hofstra until forward Anthony Richards converted a three-point play with 3:23 remaining, but the Flying Dutchmen refused to go away.
Hofstra hit two 3-pointers in the final 11 seconds, but a Pedro Phillips free throw iced the game with five seconds remaining.
Hofstra had a better shooting percentage, 45-42, and was 7-for-13 from beyond the arc, but couldn't contend with an up-tempo Southern Mississippi attack in the final four minutes.
The Golden Eagles hit 81 percent of their free throws for 17 points in the close game.
Golden Eagles guard Neil Reed led all scorers with 18 points on three treys on four attempts. Pedro Phillips came off the bench to contribute 17 points in 19 minutes, and center Vanderel Jones pulled down a game high eight rebounds.
L. Dee Murdock grabbed 10 rebounds to give the Redbirds a 41-34 edge on the boards.
Kangaroo guard Eddie Smith went to the line for two shots with two seconds left. He cut the lead to two when he hit the first, but missed the second and Redbird center Sean Riley grabbed the hard carom off the glass on the second shot as the final horn blew.
Shawn Hampton paced Virginia Commonwealth with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Garland Ragler contributed 12.
Travis Stukes led Baylor's charge back into the game with 29 points, while the rest of the team scored only 32.
Baylor outscored VCU, 46-36, in the second half but couldn't overcome the 30-point deficit.
