Wednesday, December 30, 1998
HPU comes
together to
top BYUH
The Sea Warriors play
By Jerry Campany
as a team to beat the
rival Seasiders, 79-65
Star BulletinHawaii Pacific's talented group of individuals became a team last night.
The Sea Warriors beat Brigham Young-Hawaii 79-65 to win the final of the Coca-Cola New Year's Classic at the Blaisdell Center. Hawaii Pacific came into the game at 5-5 and struggling to find a cohesive unit on offense -- but turned to the defensive end to overcome 39 percent shooting and score the win over their undermanned arch-rivals.
The Seasiders ran out to a 17-11 lead eight minutes into the game despite having their leading scorer watching from the bench. David Evans -- and his 22.8 PPG -- sat out the game with a badly injured toe, but the Seasiders passed the ball into the post at will and hardly missed him -- at least until HPU switched from a man-to-man to a stifling zone defense.
"It is a totally different game with Evans in there," HPU head coach Tony Sellitto said. "He is a fantastic player but we have a lot of positives to take away from this game anyway."
Hawaii Pacific battled back to take a halftime lead, 32-29, on a ten minute stretch in which Shannon Lee accumulated nine points and three steals while his team picked BYUH eight times. The defensive pressure would get even better after the intermission.
The Sea Warriors scored the first seven points after halftime and never looked back. The second half quickly turned into a light workout for the Sea Warriors as their reserves came in to help the team tally a season-high 17 steals while turning the ball over a season low 12 times. Hawaii Pacific forced BYUH into 21 turnovers while every player on the roster scored.
"They ran a very effective zone at us and we didn't adjust," BYUH head coach Al Walker said. "I'm sure we will be ready for it next time."
The Sea Warriors' big guns, Robert Parker and Willie Flowers, struggled on 4-15 shooting, but it didn't matter as HPU out-rebounded the Seasiders 26-12 in the second half and hit all 15 of their foul shots en route to a 90 percent mark from the line.
"Willie hasn't played a game like he is capable of yet this year," Sellitto said. "Our defense has been consistently good enough to overcome poor shooting. When our shooters start making shots, we'll be a very good team."
Lee finished with 17 points and four assists and was named the tournament's most valuable player. Parker joined him on the all-tournament team along with Seasiders Paulasi Matavao and Earl Smith. Merrill Brunson of Wisconsin-Platteville and Trelton Spencer of Evergreen State rounded out the squad.
HPU and BYUH both stand at 6-5 and will not meet again until a Pacific West Conference game Feb. 11 at the Blaisdell Center.
