Friday, January 25, 2002
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McIntyre shoots HOUSTON >> The Sports Illustrated jinx is dead. At least for one day.
UH past Rice
Hawaii's senior guard hits four 3-pointers
WAC standings
and the 'Bows use a 17-0 run to win on the road
From staff and wire reports
The Hawaii basketball team wasn't on the cover of this week's issue, but the Rainbows were the dominant story on page 82 as part of the magazine's "Inside College Basketball" section.
The "Rainbow Connection" discussed Hawaii's international roster of eight foreign players. The lone American pictured was senior guard Mike McIntyre, draped in the Stars & Stripes.
Last night at Autry Court, McIntyre was the star of the show. Held scoreless in Saturday's loss at San Jose State, the guard made up for it against Rice with 20 points to get Hawaii back on the winning track, 88-79.
The Western Athletic Conference contest was tied at 48 with 12:30 to go when the Rainbows went on a 17-0 blitz over the next 212 minutes. The injury-plagued, undermanned Owls went to a zone defense, and McIntyre went into a zone, scoring 11 consecutive points, including three of Hawaii's five 3-pointers during the run.
"We needed this one," said McIntyre, whose four treys moved him past Trevor Ruffin into third place on the career 3-point list with 125. "We didn't want to be 0-2 on the road going into Tulsa (tomorrow). We want to win there, come back with two wins for the home team (fans) and have them ready to fill it up for our games next week."
Hawaii (16-3, 7-1) left this morning for Tulsa, scene of its WAC Tournament championship run last March. The Rainbows will face the Golden Hurricane (15-3, 6-1), 78-54 winners over San Jose State yesterday, in a battle for first place.
"You know they'll be waiting for us," said Hawaii coach Riley Wallace.
If the game comes down to free-throw shooting, Wallace hopes his players will come through like they did last night. The Rainbows were 18 of 22 from the line in the second half, 12 of 14 in the final 89 seconds to hold off the Owls.
Hawaii's 17-point lead was cut to eight as Rice outscored the visitors 18-9 to close to 74-66 with 2:19 to go. The Owls sent the Rainbows to the line seven times over the next minute, with Mark Campbell hitting 6 of 8 attempts and Predrag Savovic was 6 of 6.
Campbell scored all eight of his points in the final 1:29, including Hawaii's final basket in the waning seconds. Nick Robison's 3-pointer at the buzzer finished the scoring.
"I've been working on my free throws," said Campbell, who was 16 of 25 from the line coming into the game. "We felt confident tonight, felt we were in control the whole time. But we knew Rice would make a run on their home court.
"My job was to make sure we didn't turn it over at the end."
Hawaii committed just three turnovers in the second half, 11 for the game. Most of the early turnovers were traveling calls as the officials apparently listened to Rice coach Willis Wilson, who said this week that WAC teams were getting away with traveling.
Hawaii, 3-1 on the road this season, had three other players in double-figure scoring. Savovic had a team-high 21, 14 coming in the second half. English added 17 points and 7 rebounds, and Phil Martin had 10 points before fouling out in the final minute.
The Rainbows, second in the WAC in assists, had 21 assists on their 27 field goals. English had six and Haim Shimonovich five.
Freshman forward Michael Harris led Rice (6-11, 1-6) with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman guard Brock Gillespie added 14 points, hitting four of his team's six 3-pointers, and Robison finished with 11.
"I thought it was a good team effort," Wallace said. "UTEP had a six-point lead at halftime when they came in here and lost by 13. That was the talk in the locker room, to keep focused. My only concern was we had a big lead and didn't take care of it.
"I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside then releasing it back out to the hot shooter. Mike McIntyre is instant offense off the bench and he can get you a lot of points in a hurry when he's hitting. I tell our guys when you have a hot shooter, get the ball to him."
The hot shooter in the first half was English. The sophomore guard had 14 of his 17 points to help Hawaii to a 38-31 lead at intermission. English's second 3-pointer with 7:30 to go put the Rainbows ahead for good at 24-21.
Keeping the Owls close was Gillespie, who hit three 3-pointers in the first half. His third with 2:14 remaining brought Rice to within 33-31.
The Rainbows closed out the half with a 5-0 run, with Mindaugas Burneika sinking two free throws and Savovic hitting one of his three 3-pointers.
Hawaii center Shimonovich again got into early foul trouble, spending the final five minutes of the half on the bench. The Rainbows hit the boards in his absence, outrebounding the Owls 12-4 over six minutes to turn a 14-7 rebound deficit into a 19-18 advantage right before the half. A late rebound by Rice tied it at 19 as the teams headed into the locker room, and the Owls finished with a 41-34 advantage for the game.
The 79 points by Rice was the most scored on the Rainbows this season. Hawaii was leading the WAC and was ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense (59.7 ppg) coming into the game.
Hawaii 88, Rice 79
Rainbows (16-3, 7-1 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 4 8 2 4 31 5 0 10 English 6 11 2 2 40 7 6 17 Shimonovich 3 7 0 4 29 4 5 6 Savovic 6 16 6 6 36 6 4 21 Campbell 1 1 6 8 21 2 1 8 McIntyre 6 9 4 4 23 4 2 20 Burneika 1 6 4 4 19 3 3 6 Jesinskis 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 27 58 24 32 200 34 21 88 Owls (6-11, 1-6 WAC) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Tyndell 0 3 0 1 22 1 3 0 Harris 9 12 3 5 27 13 0 21 Diene 0 2 0 0 5 0 2 0 Mance 1 5 3 4 25 2 0 5 Smith 2 9 2 2 28 3 6 6 Gillespie 5 13 0 0 21 2 0 14 Evans 1 5 6 7 30 9 1 8 McKenzie 3 6 3 4 21 6 0 9 Walton 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Kollik 1 1 2 2 1 0 0 5 Robison 1 5 8 8 18 3 2 11 Team 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 23 61 27 32 200 41 14 79 Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime-Hawaii 38, Rice 31.
3-point goals--Rice 6-20 (Gillespie 4-8, Kollik 1-1, Robison 1-3, Evans 0-1, Smith 0-3, Mance 0-2, Harris 0-1, Tyndell 0-1); Hawaii 10-18 (McIntyre 4-7, Savovic 3-6, English 3-5). Personal fouls--Rice 22, Hawaii 23. Technical fouls--none. Steals--Rice 4 (Mance 2, Tyndell, McKenzie); Hawaii 9 (Campbell 3, English 2, Savovic 2, Shimonovich, McIntyre). Blocked shots--Rice 4 (Evans 3, McKenzie); Hawaii 6 (Shimonovich 2, Campbell 2, Savovic, McIntyre). Turnovers--Rice 15 (Smith 5, Tyndell 2, Gillespie 2, Evans 2, Harris, Diene, Mance, Robison); Hawaii 11 (McIntyre 3, English 2, Burneika 2, Savovic, Martin, Campbell, Shimonovich). Officials--Ranuccci, Higgins, Hooker. A--1,835.
WAC standings
WAC Overall W L PCT W L PCT Hawaii 7 1 .875 16 3 .842 Tulsa 6 1 .833 15 3 .833 Fresno State 6 2 .750 14 6 .700 La. Tech 5 3 .625 11 6 .647 SMU 5 3 .625 10 8 .556 Nevada 4 4 .500 11 7 .611 Boise State 2 6 .250 8 10 .444 UTEP 2 6 .250 7 12 .368 Rice 1 5 .167 6 10 .375 San Jose State 1 6 .143 6 13 .316 Yesterday
Hawaii 88, Rice 79
Tulsa 78, San Jose State 54
Fresno State 78, SMU 70
Louisiana Tech 77, Nevada 69Tomorrow (All times HST)
Hawaii at Tulsa, 3 p.m.
San Jose State at Rice, 3 p.m.
Boise State at UTEP, 4 p.m.
SMU at Nevada, 5 p.m.
Louisiana Tech at Fresno State, 5 p.m.
UH Athletics