Monday, February 2, 1998
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Anthony Carter gets his shot blocked by
Fresno State's Larry Abney during the Rainbows' 91-76
loss to the Bulldogs at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.
Dog days
for ’Bows
Hawaii struggles again
By Cindy Luis
in a loss to Fresno State's short-handed
but hot-shooting Bulldogs
Star-BulletinWOOF. The 'Dogs were barking when Jerry Tarkanian came back to the locker room last night. His Fresno State basketball team had just turned the Stan Sheriff Center into its own private kennel and the Bulldogs were woofing it up after chewing up Hawaii, 91-76, on national television.
"We don't have many of them but the guys we do have have a lot of pride," said Tarkanian, who went with five of his six scholarship players for most of the Western Athletic Conference game. "This far exceeds my wildest dreams, sweeping this trip. We were just hoping for a win at San Diego State and to not embarrass ourselves here. Do you know how hard a trip this is?
"I came back into the locker room (after the postgame radio show) and the guys were saying, 'The 'Dogs are barking. The 'Dogs are barking.' "
The victory has Fresno State barking up the WAC Pacific Division tree, 11/2 games behind leader Texas Christian. The Bulldogs (12-7, 5-1) host the Horned Frogs (18-4, 7-0) Thursday.
The loss drops Hawaii (14-5, 3-4) into a three-way tie for fourth with SMU and tomorrow's opponent, San Diego State. The Rainbows, who play their third game in five days, could be dog-tired when facing the Aztecs at 7:37 p.m.
"We just didn't put it together for 40 minutes," said Rainbow forward Micah Kroeger, who was held to seven points, including just one free throw in the second half. "I thought we were ready for the game. But we had lapses of 2-3 minutes here and there, and those lapses turned into 15 points just like that."
For the past six games, the shovels were handed out at halftime as Hawaii struggled in the opening five minutes. Last night, the seventh consecutive sellout crowd watched the Rainbows start crumbling after taking a 48-45 lead with 18:21 left.
The Bulldogs went on a game-breaking 16-3 run over the next five minutes, hitting four of their 11 3-pointers to pull away. Terrance Roberson had eight of his game-high 24 points during the span; the 6-foot-7 forward finished with five 3-pointers.
Hawaii's 2-3 zone couldn't extend Fresno State far enough. The Bulldogs knocked down eight of their 12 attempts from long range in the last 20 minutes, including Chris Herren's 3-pointer at the buzzer that just added insult to the injured Rainbow egos.
"We came in here with six guys and beat a very good basketball team," said Herren. "Our season is saved. It's heart -- to step on this floor and take a victory from the home team. Tonight, we had the bigger heart."
Herren, who had scored 63 points against Hawaii in the two games last year, had 15 last night. The junior guard was a definite distraction as the Rainbow defense had to honor his scoring potential.
"Alika (Smith) did a pretty good job on Herren but Fresno just broke us down," said Hawaii coach Riley Wallace. "If you had told me before the game that we'd outrebound someone by 16 and lose by 15 points, I would have had a hard time believing you. Fresno may have lost players to suspensions but they've kept it together on the court.
"They hit their 3s during crunch time and we didn't. We're not proud of our effort tonight, it was one of the worst of the season."
Rainbow senior guards Alika Smith and Anthony Carter were a combined 10 of 39 from the field. Smith finished with a team-high 18 and Carter with 16, but over a third of those points came on free throws.
Mike Robinson, starting in place of the flu-stricken Erin Galloway, had his second strong performance in a row. Robinson, who grabbed 13 rebounds, hit his first five shots from the floor in the first half and finished with 16 points.
Eric Ambrozich had a career-high 15 rebounds while Ales Zivanovic added a season-high nine points.
"I wished (Galloway) would have played," said Tarkanian. "He couldn't have played as good as (Mike) Robinson."
But Robinson's defense was lacking, according to Wallace, adding that, "Winfred Walton took him to the hole every time he wanted to."
Walton finished with 19 points as all five of the Bulldog starters scored in double figures.
Keeping Fresno State in the game in the first half was Larry Abney, a perfect 7 of 7 from the field, with 12 of his 15 points coming in the opening 20 minutes.
Hawaii hopes to have Galloway back from tomorrow's rematch with San Diego State. The Aztecs defeated the Rainbows, 81-72, in the WAC season-opener a month ago, a defeat that started Hawaii's free-fall in terms of confidence. The Rainbows have now lost four of their last seven after starting the season 11-1.
"The games are all important from now on," said Wallace. "I told the team we just need one good game with everything clicking to get us back together. We'll be back together but we've got to find that game."
Box Score
Fresno St. 91, Hawaii 76
At Stan Sheriff Center
Bulldogs (12-7 overall, 5-1 WAC)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Walton 37 8 18 2 4 8 2 19 Alston 34 4 8 2 4 1 4 13 Abney 40 7 7 1 4 11 3 15 Herren 38 6 12 2 7 4 2 15 Roberson 38 8 16 3 7 6 2 24 Porter 9 1 1 2 2 1 2 5 Laurie 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Team 3 Totals 200 34 62 12 28 34 15 91Rainbows (14-5 overall, 3-4 WAC)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp M.Robinson 33 8 12 0 0 13 3 16 Kroeger 37 2 8 1 2 4 5 7 Smith 34 5 19 6 7 3 4 18 Carter 37 5 20 6 8 4 3 16 Ambrozich 35 4 9 0 0 15 4 8 Hook 8 1 1 0 0 2 1 2 Cartwright 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Zivanovic 12 4 6 1 2 4 2 9 Team 5 Totals 200 29 75 14 19 50 23 76Halftime score--Fresno St. 43, Hawaii 42.3-point goals--Fresno St. 11-24 (Roberson 5-8, Alston 3-5, Porter 1-1, Herren 1-4, Walton 1-6), UH 4-20 (Kroeger 2-6, Smith 2-9, Robinson 0-1, Carter 0-4).
Assists--Fresno St. 15 (Alston 5), UH 20 (Carter 7). Turnovers--Fresno St. 12, UH 13. Steals--Fresno St. 8 (Alston 4), UH 5 (Kroeger 2). Blocked shots--Fresno St. 1 (Abney), UH 2 (Ambrozich, Robinson). A--10,254. Officials--David Hall, Paul Kaster, Randy McCall.
1997-98 Rainbow Men's Basketball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
