Saturday, December 19, 1998
’Bows blow
another one
UH drops its fourth straight
By Cindy Luis
by letting a 15-point halftime
lead get away against
Eastern Illinois
Star-BulletinThere were 2,681 no-shows at the Stan Sheriff Center last night. Wherever those ticket holders were, they must have taken the Hawaii men's basketball team with them.
For the fourth time this season, the Rainbows failed to show up for the second half. This time, Hawaii squandered a 15-point halftime lead in falling to Eastern Illinois, 73-72, in the opening round of the Hawaii Nike Festival.
The host Rainbows will play in the consolation game for the second time in the tournament's six-year history. Hawaii (2-6) will face St. Bonaventure (3-5) in the 7:07 p.m. game while Northern Arizona (6-3), an 81-70 winner over the Bonnies, takes on Eastern Illinois (5-5) for the title at 5.
"I don't know what happened, I don't know what's going to turn it around for us," Rainbow forward Marquette Alexander said. "It's not that they were doing any trick defenses or anything. Our shots just weren't falling.
"Of course, I felt it, that 'Oh, no, not again.' I'm sure everybody in the stands felt it. We'll keep trying to put it together. It's just taking longer than we thought."
The game was 13 minutes too long for UH, which led, 57-43, with 13:25 left. The 'Bows, who shot 65 percent in the first half, hit just one basket over the next 9:52, falling behind, 63-62.
Hawaii never could regain the lead, closing to within a point twice in the final 95 seconds. But Eastern's Kyle Hill got his final shot to fall as the shot clock expired to give the Panthers a 73-70 lead with 15.5 seconds left.
Casey Cartwright's 3-point attempt came up short for the Rainbows. Philipp Czernin recycled the rebound into Hawaii's final points at the buzzer.
"We've been on a little skid lately and I thought we'd turn it around tonight," said Cartwright, coming back off a two-game layoff (bruised knee) to finish with 12 points. "In the second half, we didn't play team basketball. In the first half, we executed. In the second, we fell apart.
"Some of the guys started going off as individuals and it was real frustrating. We came out of the locker room with a 15-point lead and we should have broken the game wide open. We've got to turn 20 minutes of playing hard into 40 minutes."
The Rainbows had it all together in the first 20 minutes, with 14 of their 20 baskets coming on assists. The most frequent recipients of passes by Johnny White and Czernin were forwards Alexander (15 points) and Mike Robinson (10).
"Their post guys were giving us some problems in the first half but we were able to get into our post trap (defense) in the second," Hill said. "We wanted to force their mistakes."
The biggest mistake for the Rainbows was letting Hill get loose. The sophomore guard, held to five first-half points, hit three consecutive 3-pointers to open the second half en route to a game-high 21 points. He was the only Panther to score in double figures.
"They got a couple of easy baskets to start off the second half when we didn't get out on defense," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "We dropped our heads and become more individualistic. We broke down in the second half and that's a matter of concentration, not knowing how to work together through the tough times.
"Some of it was playing scared, playing to keep from losing. That first half was one of the best team efforts offensively we've had all season. We just got to learn to play 40 minutes of basketball."
Northern Arizona 81, St. Bonaventure 70: Kawika Akina had hoped he'd be playing against his former team. Instead, the ex-Rainbow recruit scored 11 second-half points to help lift the Lumberjacks into today's championship game against Eastern Illinois.
Akina, perfect from the field (5 of 5) hit two quick baskets during a 9-0 Lumberjack run midway through the second half that broke open a close game. Akina (15 points, 13 assists) was one of four NAU players that had a big second half: Rod Hutchings scored 13 of his 19 points and Billy Hix 10 of his 16 after intermission.
Casey Frank shared team-high scoring for the 'Jacks with 19. The Bonnies were led by Tim Winn (31 points) and Caswell Cyrus (14).
"It feels good to be back home, playing in front of family and friends," said Akina, a 1992 graduate of Kahuku High. "We came alive in the second half. The whole team stepped up."
At Stan Sheriff Center
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Owens 31 3 9 1 2 5 3 9 Hill 30 7 17 2 2 3 1 21 Polite 21 3 6 0 0 4 0 7 Hibbler 12 1 2 2 2 1 2 4 Shaver 23 2 2 0 4 2 2 4 Ktistou 15 1 6 2 2 1 2 40 Joseph 25 4 9 0 0 8 1 8 Forest 23 2 5 3 4 1 2 7 Bergmann 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Sharp 17 4 5 1 2 2 2 9 Team 6 Totals 200 27 62 11 18 33 15 73
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp M. Robinson 31 7 12 0 1 10 3 14 White 36 5 7 2 3 3 1 12 Cartwright 24 5 10 0 0 0 3 11 Czernin 22 4 5 0 1 4 4 8 Alexander 30 8 15 3 3 11 4 19 Galloway 19 0 3 2 4 6 2 2 McIntyre 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 Lee 18 1 3 0 0 0 1 2 G. Robinson 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gillman 12 0 0 2 2 0 0 2 Team 0 Totals 200 31 57 9 14 34 18 72Key: mp-minutes played. fgm-field goals made. fga-field goals attempted. ftm-free throws made. fta-free throws attempted. reb-rebounds. pf-personal fouls. pts-points scored.Halftime score--Hawaii 45, Eastern Illinois 30.
3-point goals--Eastern Illinois 8-25 (Hill 5-10, Owens 2-7, Polite 1-3, Bergmann 0-1, Ktistou 0-2, Forest 0-2), UH 1-4 (Cartwright 1-3, White 0-1).
Assists--Eastern Illinois 19 (Owens 10), UH 19 (White 5). Turnovers--Eastern Illinois 14 (Owens 5), UH 19 (White 5). Steals--Eastern Illinois 8 (Forest 2), UH 9 (M. Robinson 4). Blocked shots--Eastern Illinois 2 (Hill 1, Shaver 1), UH 4 (Alexander 2).
A--7,320. Officials: Hunt, Ristau, Fuentes.
Northern Arizona: Hix 6-7 1-1 16, Land 1-5 0-0 3, Frank 7-10 5-8 19, McNair 1-3 2-2 5, Akina 5-5 2-4 15, Hutchings 6-8 3-3 19, Wolthers 2-3 0-0 4. Totals: 28-41 13-18 81.
St. Bonaventure: King 4-13 0-0 8, Van Paassen 0-2 0-0 0, Cyrus 6-9 2-3 14, Winn 11-16 2-2 31, Capers 2-5 2-3 6, Bremer 3-6 0-0 7, Durham 2-5 0-0 4. Totals: 28-56 6-8 70
Halftime--No. Arizona 35, St. Bonaventure 34. 3-point goals--No. Arizona 12-18 (Hutchings 4-4, Akina 3-3, Hix 3-3, McNair 1-3, Land 1-4, Wolters 0-1), St. Bonaventure 8-19 (Winn 7-9, Bremer 1-3, Capers 0-3, King 0-4). Fouled out--Cyrus. Rebounds--No. Arizona 25 (Casey 9), St. Bonaventure 16 (Cyrus 5). Assists--No. Arizona 22 (Akina 13), St. Bonaventure 11 (Winn 5). Total fouls--No. Arizona 11, St. Bonaventure 20.
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