Rainbows show no problem scoring

An intrasquad scrimmage tends to be a good news-bad news type of deal.

Among the positives coming out of the Hawaii basketball team's simulated game yesterday at the Stan Sheriff Center was that both teams scored more than 80 points.

The bad news -- see above.

After a week of drills, the scrimmage reinforced coach Riley Wallace's early assessment of the team's development while giving the Rainbow Warriors a chance to gauge their conditioning and progress under game-like situations.

"Offense is way ahead of the defense," Wallace said. "So we have to continue to stress the defensive end of it. ... We're on schedule."

Not surprisingly, senior guard Matt Lojeski was the most productive player in the scrimmage, leading the Rainbows with 32 points on 12-for-16 shooting from the floor. He made four of six 3-point attempts and had four assists in leading the Black team to the 89-86 win in the 40-minute session.

"He knows how to get open, they'll find him, and he can shoot the ball," Wallace said of Lojeski, who was second on the team in scoring last season. "He's the most consistent offensive player and he's safe defensively, I don't see him getting whipped a lot."

Junior transfer Riley Luettgerodt contributed 21 points at small forward for the Black in the scrimmage that offered the 'Bows a chance to learn from both their successes and struggles.

"Coach is always telling me I need to just be patient and put my game into the offense," he said. "I forced a couple of shots, I'm still trying to learn the offense."

Center Stephen Verwers had 11 points and 11 rebounds despite playing nearly the entire second half with four fouls. The junior also fed Lojeski and Luettgerodt for the tying and go-ahead scores late in the scrimmage with nifty passes from the high post.

Matt Gibson paced the White with 23 points, while Bobby Nash and forward Ahmet Gueye had 14 each and guard John Wilder scored 12. Junior transfer Alex Veit contributed all 11 of his points in the second half, twice scoring on dunks and soaring for two blocks on defense.

Freshman point guard Todd Lowenthal led the Rainbows with six assists.

"Little Todd showed a lot," said Nash, distinguishing Lowenthal from 7-foot center Todd Follmer. "He showed he can get to the cup, and he can run a ballclub. He's still young, but his experience playing basketball makes up for that."

Gueye continues his comeback from a knee injury suffered late last season and shot 5-for-8 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds yesterday.

"I have to get in shape; these guys were just running like crazy," he said. "But I had fun with the guys. I was really impressed with Riley and Lojo, they're playing really well together.

"I'm just getting it back every day, getting stronger every day. The guys are beating me up, that's what I ask them to do, push me just like a real game. That's what I need."

With just a week's worth of practices behind them, the play was often ragged, with turnovers aplenty. While the newcomers are still picking up the intricacies of the offense, they displayed some of their potential in the scrimmage.

"The new guys have the skills, but they don't know how to put it in the game yet," Wallace said.

"You can tell we're not as sharp as we need to be," Lojeski said. "We're breaking down the plays a little early, and we need to get the big guys involved. Me and Riley did pretty well playing together, but we need to get more of a total team going and executing the plays. But that will come."

Two of the more interesting duels over the weeks leading up to the Nov. 10 opener at UNLV figure to be at point guard, where Gibson and sophomore Dominic Waters are vying for playing time, and between Nash, a fourth-year junior, and Luettgerodt at small forward.

"It's a battle every day," Nash said. "We're two warriors going at it just like Dominic and Matt are going at it. The main thing is we're playing hard and we're fighting for time, we're fighting for a position. As long as we keep playing hard and keep pushing each other to excel, it's going to make the team better."