ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii guard Kris Groce tried to get around Southern Methodist's Jon Killen during the first half of yesterday's game.

Road-weary
’Bows fall

UH’s three-game road trip
ends with a 71-65 loss to
Bryan Hopkins and
Southern Methodist

DALLAS » The road has become somewhat annoying -- and very tiresome -- to the Hawaii men's basketball team.

It's no secret that the Rainbow Warriors are happy to be returning home.

Following a one-point loss Thursday, Hawaii ended a three-game road trip with a 71-65 loss yesterday to Southern Methodist at Moody Coliseum. SMU (11-10, 6-7 Western Athletic Conference) avenged a 12-point loss to Hawaii (13-7, 5-7) on Jan. 13 and won for only the second time in two weeks.

"They stepped up and hit big shots down the stretch," UH guard Matt Gibson said. "I don't know, I guess the road just got to us. We didn't have the same energy."

SMU beat Hawaii for only the second time in the last nine meetings and did so by using its playmaker, point guard Bryan Hopkins. Hawaii beat SMU earlier this season without Hopkins, who was out with a wrist injury.

Hopkins finished yesterday with a game-high 27 points and made 13 of 17 free throws.

"We're much better when Bryan is controlling our basketball team," SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs said. "He has a scorer's mentality, but his points came because he controlled the tempo. He didn't force much."

Added Gibson: "Without him, we won by 12. With him, they win and he scores 27. We played good 'D' on him, but a guy like that is hard to stop. You just hope to contain him."

SMU, in addition, got 14 points from Patrick Simpson and 10 from Eric Castro, who surpassed the 1,000-point mark (1,004) for his career.

Hawaii's road fatigue might have shown most in the rebounding category. The team was outrebounded 43-23 and had only six offensive boards. It had one offensive rebound in the first half.

"We were outrebounded by 20, and when that happens, you're usually going to get beat," Rainbow Warriors coach Riley Wallace said. "We're usually a pretty good rebounding team. We just showed signs of fatigue."

SMU's Devon Pearson had a career-high 11 rebounds to go along with nine points. Simpson had 10 rebounds, and Justin Isham collected eight boards.

ASSOCIATED PRESS SMU's Bryan Hopkins tried to escape Hawaii's Deonte Tatum with help from Patrick Simpson.

Hawaii trailed 32-27 at halftime after SMU scored five points in the final 19 seconds of the first half. SMU was able to stretch its lead to 12 with 2:57 left to play.

Hopkins helped SMU keep its momentum with a desperation 32-footer before the 30-second shot clock expired with 3:46 left. His shot gave SMU a 10-point advantage.

"He came back with one of his best nights of the year," Wallace said.

Added guard Jake Sottos: "We knew he would come in with some force. He just got us tonight."

The Rainbows continued to fight back, however, cutting the lead to six points four times in the final 44 seconds. Hawaii ended the game fighting, as Julian Sensley tipped in a bucket at the buzzer.

"We played our hearts out and just ran out of gas," Sottos said. "Even the seniors said they were gassing. We fought hard, but (the Mustangs) had an answer for everything."

Sottos led the team in scoring with 17 points. Sensley had 14 points and a team-high five rebounds. Gibson and Bobby Nash each added 10 points.

Tubbs said a part of the game plan was to focus on containing Hawaii's trio of Sottos, Sensley and Gibson. The three players averaged more than half of the team's 71.4 points per game heading into yesterday's game.

"Sottos still had 17 points. He's a great shooter," Tubbs said. "Sensley can go inside or outside. The game plan was to defend all three. We wanted to make sure we defended (Sottos') 3-point shot.

"We played consistent defense for the most part. We made a few mistakes defensively, but overall, we played well enough for the win."

SMU benefited from Hawaii's sub-par shooting in the first half. The Rainbows shot 36 percent from the field and had no second-chance points, two fast-break points and six points in the paint.

The six-point loss was Hawaii's worst of the season.

"When a six-point loss is the biggest loss, that says a lot," Sottos said. "We knew we could play with them. That (WAC) tournament is going to be interesting."

Hawaii returns to action Wednesday at home against Boise State. The Rainbows lost at Boise State by four -- previously their biggest margin of defeat -- on Jan. 22. Their seven losses have come by a total of 18 points.

Hawaii closes the season with five of its final seven games on the road.

"We've proven we can play with everybody," Wallace said. "We'll be back."

WAC standings

	WAC				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Nevada	11	2	.846	--	18	5
UTEP	9	4	.692	2	19	6
Louisiana Tech	8	5	.615	3	13	9
Rice	7	5	.583	3 1/2	13	8
Fresno State	7	6	.538	4	13	9
SMU	6	7	.462	5	11	10
Hawaii	5	7	.417	5 1/2	13	7
Boise State	4	9	.308	7	10	14
San Jose State	3	9	.250	7 1/2	6	15
Tulsa	3	9	.250	7 1/2	6	15

Yesterday
Louisiana Tech 72, San Jose State 55
Nevada 62, UTEP 60
Rice 71, Tulsa 64 OT
SMU 71, Hawaii 65
Boise State 82, Fresno State 68

SMU 71, Hawaii 65

Rainbow Warriors (13-7, 5-7 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Gibson	3	7	2	2	27	0	3	10
Sottos	6	13	0	0	32	4	2	17
Blackett	1	6	1	3	25	3	5	3
Sensley	5	12	3	4	36	5	2	14
Botez	2	2	0	0	23	3	2	4
Gipson	1	4	1	2	18	2	1	3
Groce	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Peciukas	1	1	0	0	7	0	2	2
Tatum	1	1	0	0	12	1	0	2
Nash	3	8	2	2	20	2	3	10
TEAM						3
Totals	23	55	9	13	201	23	20	65
Mustangs (11-10, 6-7 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Simpson	6	12	2	3	39	10	1	14
Pearson	4	10	0	0	38	11	5	9
Ofoegbu	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Hopkins	6	12	13	17	35	5	2	27
Castro	5	8	0	1	33	6	3	10
Ritter	0	0	0	0	7	1	0	0
Isham	2	4	4	10	32	8	1	9
Killen	1	1	0	0	14	1	1	2
TEAM						1
Totals	24	47	19	31	200	43	13	71

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime -- SMU 32, Hawaii 27.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 10-27 (Sottos 5-11, Nash 2-5, Gibson 2-6, Sensley 1-4), SMU 4-7 (Hopkins 2-3, Pearson 1-2, Isham 1-2). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 25, SMU 15. Fouled out -- Gibson, Blackett.
Steals -- Hawaii 5 (Blackett 3, Sensley, Tatum), SMU 4 (Hopkins 2, Pearson, Killen). Blocked shots -- Hawaii 4 (Botez, Gipson, Tatum, Nash), SMU 1 (Simpson). Turnovers -- Hawaii 7 (Gibson 3, Sottos 2, Blackett, Peciukas), SMU 12 (Castro 6, Simpson 3, Hopkins, Isham, Killen). Officials -- Littlewood, Lott, Barr. Attendance-- 3,254.