RAINBOW WARRIOR BASKETBALL
Time in the gym has Sensley shooting straight
As recreational players filed into Gym II looking for an early-evening run, Julian Sensley continued to fire jumper after jumper at the rim.
It was close to a half-hour after the Hawaii basketball team had wrapped up practice yesterday when the Rainbow Warrior forward finally grabbed a towel and headed for the locker room.
HAWAII VS. FRESNO STATE
When: Saturday, 7:05 p.m.
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
TV: Live, KFVE (Ch. 5)
Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM
Internet: audio, Sportsradio1420.com; video, hawaiiantelmedia.com
Tickets: $22 (lower level-single seats only), $18 (upper level-adult), $5 (upper-students), $3 (upper-UH students), $5 (Super Rooter/Manoa Maniacs)
Parking: $3
Promotion: First 1,000 fans receive a free pom-pom courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines.
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Ever since a disappointing outing against Penn last month, Sensley has regularly been among the last UH players to leave the court, working to rediscover his shooting rhythm.
The extra work certainly appeared to pay off last Saturday when Sensley dropped in a career-high 32 points in UH's 87-84 loss at New Mexico State.
"It's helped a lot," Sensley said of his shooting sessions with UH associate coach Bob Nash. "If anything, it's helped my confidence. So when I am trying to be aggressive I'm not insecure about myself. If I miss a shot I'm not worried about if I'm going to get the next one."
Sensley hit 12 of 21 shots from the field and went 6-for-7 from the free-throw line against the Aggies to post the highest point total by a UH player since Carl English poured in 33 against Tulsa in the 2003 Western Athletic Conference tournament.
"People asked me if I was in the zone. I wasn't really in the zone. I was just taking shots when they were there and I was able to knock them down," he said. "Working with Coach Nash has been a huge benefit for me in being able to do that. He showed me how to come off picks and hit shots, helped me kind of find my own game."
Sensley leads the Rainbows (8-6, 2-2 WAC) in scoring with 16.6 points per game in a senior season that's already seen its share of peaks and valleys.
He was shut out for the first time in his career at UNLV in the second game of the season, then rebounded to score a then-career-high 28 in UH's rematch with the Runnin' Rebels.
After he struggled to a four-point night against Penn on Dec. 29, hitting one of six shots from the field, Sensley sought Nash's help and hit for 19 in a victory over Nevada in UH's next game.
He's taken a back-to-basics approach to smooth out his shooting stroke, with Nash feeding him for shots from various spots on the floor and making sure he squares up to the basket.
"I think that's what made (former UH guards Michael) Kuebler and (Predrag) Savovic such good players, because they stuck to the fundamentals," Sensley said.
"He was always changing his shot," UH head coach Riley Wallace said, "fall-aways, not squaring up, off balance. When he took those good shots (against NMSU) he wore them out."
Sensley reached another milestone during UH's road trip last week, becoming the 10th UH player to grab 500 career rebounds. He's also 29 points away from joining the program's 1,000-point club. Only three players in UH history -- John Penebacker, Melton Werts and Phil Martin -- have reached both marks.
Sensley will try to build on his big night on Saturday when Fresno State visits the Stan Sheriff Center for a Western Athletic Conference contest. The Bulldogs (9-6, 2-2) are coming off an 87-77 win over Nevada last night in Fresno.
The UH-Fresno State matchup always holds a little more meaning for Sensley, who attended FSU for a semester before finding his way to Manoa.
"(It's) not just because I went there -- that's our rival," he said. "You always want to play tough against Fresno, and no matter what their record is, they always come ready to play Hawaii."
Stat watch: UH forward Ahmet Gueye continues to lead the WAC and is ranked 19th in the nation in blocked shots with 2.64 per game (37 total). He is also third in the conference in field-goal percentage at 59.5 percent. Sensley is eighth in the league in scoring and second in minutes played (38.9 per game).