RAINBOW WARRIOR BASKETBALL
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii coach Riley Wallace tried to make his point with a game official Tuesday night.
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UH mixes it up after loss
A day after suffering its second straight loss, the Hawaii basketball team entered a 10-day break with a new-look rotation for yesterday's practice.
"We're shaking up the lineup," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "I've got to get more scoring in there."
After Tuesday's 61-58 loss to UNLV at the Stan Sheriff Center and with a matchup with Northwestern State coming up on Dec. 16, the Rainbows (4-4) are using the down time to get ready for next week's final exams and look at some different combinations on the court.
Forward P.J. Owsley played with the first group in place of center Stephen Verwers yesterday.
Guards Dominic Waters and Matt Gibson teamed in the backcourt, while Matt Lojeski moved to small forward, with Bobby Nash and Owsley at the posts.
Senior forward Ahmet Gueye will sit out this week's practices to rest his surgically repaired knee and is set to return to practice on Monday.
The Rainbows haven't reached the 60-point mark in their four losses, and Wallace said he's looking to get more firepower on the court.
Verwers started each of the first eight games, averaging 2.3 points on 7-for-19 shooting in just under 20 minutes per game.
"When we're getting beat is when we score in the 50s," Wallace said. "If we can get them to play defense and rebound, we'll go with quickness and scoring ability."
Lojeski, who also played some power forward yesterday, and Nash have started every game at shooting guard and small forward, respectively. Waters and Owsley have been two of the team's top contributors off the bench early in the season.
Nash earned all-state honors at Iolani playing primarily in the post and moved to power forward at times against UNLV.
"I think they're all willing to do whatever it takes to try to win," Wallace said.
Less than 24 hours after losing to UNLV for the second time this season, the Rainbows had a spirited 90-minute workout at Gym II.
"Last night was a heartbreaker. We had to think about it and learn from our mistakes," Nash said.
"We worked our butts off; it's a good way to get back, rather than sit around and think about it all day. Get out there and work it out."
The Rainbows will practice today and tomorrow and take the weekend off before getting back in the gym to prepare for Northwestern State (5-4).
"I think it's a good thing we've got a 10-day break," Waters said after Tuesday's game, "where we can just sit on it and think about it and measure our mistakes so we can change them and correct them and be ready to play the next game. Get some rest and come back refreshed."
"You can take a different look at things and see how we can improve," Nash said. "Mostly it's to get finals out of the way and take a step back and work on what we need to work on."
Bouncing back:
After sitting out this week, Gueye will be on a schedule of practicing two days followed by a day off to give his knee time to recover.
After a slow start on Tuesday that landed him on the bench for a significant stretch in the second half, Gueye finished with eight points and 11 rebounds against UNLV.
Stat story:
With a 62 percent free-throw shooting performance against UNLV, the Rainbows dropped from first to third among Western Athletic Conference teams at 73.9 percent.
Hawaii had been shooting 76.6 percent prior to Tuesday's game. The 'Bows went 6-for-8 in the first half, but a 12-for-21 showing in the second half hampered them in the loss.
Turnovers have also dogged the Rainbows early in the season. They gave the ball away 20 times on Tuesday, and are averaging 18 per game, the most in the WAC.
Lojeski ranks sixth in the WAC in scoring at 15.4 points per game and second in assists at 5.25 per game.