Wednesday, December 30, 1998
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
University of Hawaii freshman Philipp Czernin goes to
the basket in last night's game against UNC Charlotte in
the semifinals of the Rainbow Classic. UH lost, 70-68.
Same old story
for Rainbows
Second-half collapse spells
By Cindy Luis
end for Hawaii in a 70-68
loss to the 49ers
Star-BulletinBobby Lutz had eight scouting tapes on the Hawaii men's basketball team. The coach of North Carolina Charlotte probably only needed to watch one to figure out the Rainbows' main weakness: the second half.
This time, Hawaii's collapse came later than usual. But it still came. For the fifth time in eight losses, the Rainbows couldn't finish a game after taking a halftime lead.
Last night, Hawaii was 6 minutes and 28 seconds away from the championship game of the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic. Instead, the Rainbows will be playing for third place against Texas, thanks to a shooting drought that saw them go without a basket for nearly seven minutes.
UNC Charlotte sank its last 10 free throws over the final 113 seconds to hold off Hawaii, 70-68, in the first championship bracket semifinal at the Stan Sheriff Center. The 49ers (8-4) will face Princeton (7-4), a 56-46 winner over Texas, for the title at 7:30 p.m.
The Rainbows and the Longhorns will meet at 5 p.m. in a battle of two 3-8 teams that are better than their records indicate.
"We haven't given up, we can pick it up," said Rainbow senior swingman Casey Cartwright. "It's a little bit of a letdown, playing for third. We had our hearts set on going back to the finals.
"We've got to come back and play hard so we don't get another 'L.' The ball hasn't bounced our way and we have to get rid of those turnovers somehow."
The Rainbows (3-8) had 12 second-half turnovers, some forced by the 49ers' presses and traps, some on miscommunication, and some chalked up to freshman mistakes by Phil Czernin.
"There was one stretch where we didn't do much except make turnovers," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "But we played more good basketball tonight than we've played all year.
"Going for third place is an important game for us. It would give us two wins in our last three games before we go on the road for the WAC season. As I told our players, the team that gets up and gets ready to play will win."
The Rainbows were more than fired up last night, jumping out to a 23-7 lead with 9:20 left in the first half. But a 16-point deficit is nothing to the 49ers, not compared to having one of their players (freshman Charles Hayward) have a relapse in his leukemia treatment the day before the team left for Hawaii and leading scorer Diego Guevara out with what was first believed to be a fractured vertebra suffered in a game Sunday.
"Our team is very close and I'm proud of how they've come through the adversity to reach the championship game," said Lutz. "Hawaii came out by far the more aggressive team and really knocked us on our heels. I thought our defense in the second half was the key difference in the game. Then our guys really stepped up and made their foul shots."
Senior forward Galen Young, held to four first-half points, took charge after intermission. His tip-in of a missed free throw with 4:57 remaining gave UNCC its first lead of the game at 56-55.
It was lead the 49ers never relinquished as they led by as many as six in the final minutes. The Rainbows continued to battle with Mike Robinson hitting his first-ever 3-pointer in three season at Hawaii and Cartwright hitting his third 3-pointer of the game to close to 68-66 with 10.8 seconds to go.
Young then sank the last of six straight free throws to ice it a 70-66. Czernin's meaningless putback at the buzzer finished the scoring.
Young finished with 22 points, including 9-of-11 free-throw shooting. Kelvin Price added 13.
Robinson led the Rainbows with 21, tying his career high. Cartwright had 17 points.
"Little bit by little bit, it's coming together," said Robinson. "First, it was a whole half we couldn't win. Now we've narrowed it down to 5-6 minutes. We need to come out and be ready to play for the whole 40 minutes."
n Princeton 56, Texas 46: Gabe Lewullis and Brian Earl are no strangers to playing 40 minutes. The two Tigers played the entire game against the Longhorns with Lewullis scoring 19 points and Earl 13.
Lewullis became the 23rd Princeton player to reach 1,000 career points when he hit his second 3-pointer early against Texas (3-8). The Tigers' first five baskets came from 3-point range as they took a 15-8 lead midway through the first half.
Neither team did much scoring in the final 10 minutes before intermission as the two combined for 36 points, a Classic record for fewest points in a half (21-15).
According to Princeton coach Bill Carmody, the "great stat of the night" was the zero offensive rebounds his team had. The Tigers (7-4) grabbed 24 offensive rebounds.
"I'm disappointed in the way we played," said Texas coach Rick Barnes. "We had many chances but we had one big lapse on defense (Lewullis' late 3-pointer) and that was the game.
"I haven't looked a lot at Hawaii but I respect Riley and they're playing at home. We're going to have to be ready to play or it's going to be another long night for us."
n Florida State 69, Mississippi State 58: For the second straight game, the Bulldogs came alive late. And for the second straight game, the Bulldogs' rally failed.
This time it came against the Seminoles (6-5), who needed a 12-2 spurt in the final 2:09 to fend off Mississippi State (9-3) in a consolation semifinal. Florida State held the Bulldogs scoreless down the stretch until Tang Hamilton's meaningless layup with two seconds remaining.
Ron Hale scored 10 points of his 19 points during a a 17-5 run in the second half that put FSU ahead, 54-36, with 7:55 left. MSU stormed back with a 20-3 run over five minutes to close to 57-56.
Terrell Baker added 16 points for the Seminoles. Tyrone Washington led the Bulldogs with 16 points, 13 coming in the second half when he hit all four of his 3-pointers.
n Murray State 81, Southwestern Louisiana 68: The Racers' Aubrey Reese may have played himself onto the all-tournament team with his effort against the Ragin' Cajuns. Reese scored 23 points -- more than double his season average -- had 10 rebounds and four assists to lead Murray State (10-1) over Southwestern Louisiana in the first consolation semifinal.
The Racers used an 8-3 run midway through the first half en route to a 44-35 halftime lead and never looked back. The margin was up to 15 points with 11 minutes left and the closest the Ragin' Cajuns got was seven points.
Isaac Spencer added 17 points and nine boards for Murray State. USL was led by Shea Whiting's 15 points.
Rainbow Classic
Today: Mississippi State vs. Southwestern Louisiana, 11 a.m.; Murray State vs. Florida State, 1:30 p.m.; Hawaii vs. Texas, 5:05 p.m.; Princeton vs. UNC Charlotte, 7:35 p.m.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
