Injuries haven’t kept
’Bows from winning

Since members of the Hawaii basketball team began arriving on the Manoa campus, injuries or illness have seemed to trail the Rainbow Warriors.

Trainer Melody Toth is one of the busiest members of the UH staff as nearly all of UH's scholarship players have suffered some kind of ailment since starting preseason conditioning, from knee injuries to bruised ribs to sprained ankles to whiplash.

But the setbacks haven't hampered the Rainbows on the court so far, as they've fought through the aches and paints to forge a 5-0 start for the season.

"It seems we've got injuries on this team every day, but we seem to bounce back," said UH forward Julian Sensley, who missed a day of preseason practice with a sprained ankle. "We have a lot of strong guys on this team and this team has a lot of heart."

After an 84-77 win over Saint Mary's (Calif.) on Saturday, the Rainbows will have some time to recharge before heading into next week's Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.

Hawaii, off to its best start since 1997, takes an unblemished record into the Rainbow Classic for the first time since 1973 and opens its quest for a fourth straight tournament championship a week from today against Long Beach State.

After being a mid-major showcase the past two years, the 41st Classic once again features teams from some of the big-name conferences with the Atlantic Coast Conference (Clemson), Big East (Georgetown), Pac-10 (USC) and Conference USA (Alabama-Birmingham) represented.

Indiana State (Missouri Valley) and Oral Roberts (Mid-Continent) round out the field.

The tournament, held in a rare pre-Christmas time slot, opens Dec. 20 with the finals set for Dec. 23.

Hawaii maintained its perfect record on Saturday by producing its best shooting night of the season against Saint Mary's and again overcoming absences in the days leading up to the game.

Four Hawaii players missed at least one day of practice last week due to injury or disciplinary reasons.

Guards Bobby Nash and Jake Sottos, and forward Matthew Gipson sat out at least a day with various ailments. Guard Matt Gibson was dismissed from practice early last Tuesday and was held out the following day.

Sottos missed the most practice time of the group and didn't get into Saturday's game, but the other three contributed to the win.

Nash scored 10 points in the first half. Gibson hit all four of his shots from the field and went 5-for-6 at the free-throw line.

Gipson came off the bench to turn in one of his best performances of the young season with nine points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

"I felt real comfortable with our offense and I'm just kind of finding my niche," Gipson said.

Both of Gipson's second-half assists went to Gibson, who cut along the baseline for easy layups.

"That's the most fun about playing ball, giving one of your teammates an assist," Gipson said. "There's no other feeling like that connection."

With three players out of action last Wednesday, Deonte Tatum and Kris Groce were the only scholarship guards available to practice. Tatum got the start on Saturday and finished with eight points and three assists in a season-high 34 minutes. Groce, who did not play in UH's previous two games, handled the point for 12 minutes.

"We had a week where we had guys hurt. We had a discipline problem which we straightened out," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "It all ended up helping us because Tatum and Groce got heavy reps."

A few Rainbows were dinged up during the game as well. Nash and Tatum went to the bench with leg cramps and forward Jeff Blackett (18 points, nine rebounds, four assists) left the game in the second half with a concussion after taking a knee to the head. The senior sat out awhile but returned in the game's final moments.