Friday, March 5, 1999
HPU falls to
By Tim Booth
Seattle Pacific, 83-61
Special to the Star-BulletinELLENSBURG, WA -- Hawaii Pacific found out last night just how hard it is to defeat a team twice within a week.
In the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II West Regional, facing the same Seattle Pacific squad the Sea Warriors defeated (87-83) in last week's PacWest tournament in Hawaii, HPU fell victim to a hot-shooting Falcon squad, falling, 83-61. The Sea Warriors' season ended at 22-8.
"I thought we'd play better than we did," HPU head coach Tony Sellitto said. "Especially since we played them before and knew their personnel."
The Falcons, who improved their record to 22-7, hit on 15 of 28 3-point attempts (53.6 percent), while HPU suffered through a miserable night of shooting, hitting on only 35 percent of its shots and only five of 25 3-pointers.
"Our shooting was obviously good, and I was proud of our shot selection," SPU head coach Ken Bone said. "Because of that we shot 54 percent.
"And they took a lot of shots with hands in their face," Bone said.
"That's why they shot only 20 percent (on 3-point attempts)."
The Sea Warriors trailed by as many as seven early in the first half but pulled even at 29 on Willie Flowers' 3-pointer with 3:20 left in the half. But the Falcons closed the half with 10 straight points for a 39-29 lead.
Flowers, who was playing with a severely sprained left ankle, scored only nine points after torching SPU for 19 in the first half last week.
"You must coach into your team that they have to learn how to play without the players you want in the game," Sellitto said.
The Falcons began to pull away in the second half primarily due to the shooting of guard Ryan Sowards and forward Jeff McBroom.
McBroom, the PacWest player of the year, scored 10 of his game-high 20 points after the intermission, while Sowards poured in 13 of his 19 points.
Sowards' play on the defensive end neutralized the play of HPU point guard Shannon Lee.
Lee, who scored a team-high 18 points, was unable to get the Sea Warriors' running game started, due to SPU's hot shooting.
"It's hard to run off of makes," Lee said. "It's a lot better to get the running game going off of misses."
The Sea Warriors also suffered through a 6-for-21 night by PacWest first-teamer Robert Parker. The 6-foot-6 forward from Sacramento, Calif., scored 14 points but missed on all eight of his 3-point attempts.
"Robert Parker played like junk," Sellitto said.
Lee, Parker, Flowers and three other HPU seniors -- Stacey Nolan, Cordell Ray and Kendal Lewis -- played their final game in a Sea Warriors uniform.
"I thought we'd be able to beat them because we beat them the last time we played them," Lee said.
"They made everything and we missed everything. That's just the way it goes sometimes."
Seattle Pacific: Hudgins 4-7 1-1 12, McCauley 1-2 1-2 4, Stone 4-5 2-2 12, McBroom 8-19 0-0 20, Carter 0-3 0-0 0, Fox 3-3 0-0 6, Bukoski 0-0 0-0 0, Skogstad 1-2 0-0 3, Sowards 7-10 2-2 19, Johnson 1-1 0-0 3, Cooper 0-0 0-0 0, Leadon 1-1 2-4 4, Claridge 0-2 0-0 0, Totals- 30-55 8-11 83. Seattle Pacific 83, Hawaii Pacific 61
Hawaii Pacific: Lee 8-15 0-0 18, Parker 6-21 2-4 14, Nolan 0-4 4-4 4, Kato 1-4 2-2 4, Flowers 3-8 0-0 9, Smith 3-4 0-1 6, Lewis 0-1 2-2 2, Grissom 0-1 0-0 0, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Ray 1-2 0-0 2, Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Newburn 1-5 0-0 2, Totals- 23-66 10-13 61.
Halftime: Seattle Pacific 39, Hawaii Pacific 29. 3-pointers: SPU 15-28 (Sowards 3-6, Hudgins 3-5, McBroom 4-10, Stone 2-3, McCauley 1-1, Johnson 1-1, Skogstad 1-2), HPU 5-25 (Flowers 3-8, Lee 2-6, Parker 0-8, Newburn 0-3), Rebounds: SPU 33 (Leadon 8), HPU 36 (Parker 7), Assists: SPU 21 (Stone 6), HPU 8 (Lee 5), Blocks: SPU 3, HPU 2, Steals: SPU 5 (McBroom 3), HPU 9 (Parker 3). Turnovers -- SPU 17, HPU 16. Fouls -- SPU 15, HPU 14.
