Friday, February 5, 1999
Miners turn
back Rainbows
A second-half surge
By Pat Bigold
carries Texas-El Paso
past Hawaii
Star-BulletinTexas-El Paso center Sharif Fajardo said Hawaii's air is good for his asthma.
"It's humid, so it's good for me here," he said.
So, while the 6-foot-9 senior finds it easier to breathe, he choked the life out of the Rainbows in a 76-66 Texas-El Paso victory over Hawaii before 3,993 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Fajardo scored 27 points (well above his 14.2 average), all inside the perimeter, on a red-hot 11-for-15 shooting night. He also had seven steals, five rebounds and five assists.
The loss dropped Hawaii to 1-7 in the Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division and 4-16 overall. Looming tomorrow is a home-court meeting with No. 17 New Mexico (17-5 overall, 4-3 WAC).
"A lot of teams have had trouble guarding our big guys down low, so we take it upon ourselves to do a lot of the scoring," Fajardo said.
Brandon Wolfram, a 6-9 sophomore, added 15 for the Miners (13-8, 5-3 WAC).
On Jan. 7, Fajardo had 16 points to lead his team in Hawaii's conference-opening 66-53 loss at UTEP.
"The big fella has improved a lot since we were down there," said Rainbows head coach Riley Wallace. "He had a big stepout move on us tonight and did a lot of things. He was active on defense and was feeling good about himself."
Despite his production, Fajardo played only 31 minutes.
"I thought he got exhausted real quick," said UTEP's 38th-year head coach Don "Bear" Haskins.
"He has sinus and a lot of allergies. Every now and then, he would run out of gas. He's in great shape, but he'd go two or three minutes and we'd just take him out for a minute so he can use his inhaler."
As for the Rainbows, 6-8 junior center Marquette Alexander had the second best scoring night of his first year in Hawaii.
Alexander, who entered the game averaging 12.9 ppg, had 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting to go along with six rebounds.
It was Alexander's second 20-point performance in the last three games. He had 29 on the road last week at San Jose state.
Freshman Philipp Czernin had a career-high 15 points, and junior point guard Johnny White tied his season high of 16 points.
Led by six Czernin points, the Rainbows took a 16-10 lead 612 minutes into the game. But the Miners went on a 10-0 run to erase that and go ahead, 20-16. Hawaii went into the locker room trailing, 35-34.
Fajardo, who had 14 in the first half, didn't score again until 6:37 into the second half.
That's when he broke a 42-42 tie with a 15-footer from the baseline to ignite a decisive 14-0 UTEP run. In that run, Fajardo scored nine points and had two assists.
"It seems like every game it winds up like that," said Czernin. "We have that one lapse that ends up putting us under."
Czernin and White led the team with four turnovers apiece and Hawaii committed 18 overall to UTEP's eight.
"We committed too many unforced turnovers where guys weren't patient," said Czernin.
Disappointing to Wallace were the two-point performances of senior forward Mike Robinson and senior guard Casey Cartwright.
But Wallace said Cartwright (averaging 10.5 ppg coming in) was in pain.
"Casey's hurting," he said. "He had his cyst in his left knee drained again. He had two very bad knees and he'll probably have surgery when the season is over. He's had this since the second half of the season. That's why he's not the same Casey he used to be."
Box Score
Texas-El Paso 76, Hawaii 66
Miners (13-8 overall; 5-3 WAC)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Fajardo 31 11 15 5 7 5 2 27 Nelson 30 4 12 0 1 2 1 11 Mullahon 33 1 6 2 2 2 2 5 Wolfram 37 5 7 5 9 3 1 15 McRae 21 3 7 4 5 1 3 11 Luces 7 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 Escobedo 5 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 Smith 29 2 5 2 2 5 3 7 Bomba 7 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 Team 2 Totals 200 26 54 18 26 27 15 76
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp McIntyre 34 2 7 0 0 5 2 6 M. Robinson 19 1 5 0 0 3 2 2 White 36 5 9 5 6 2 0 16 Czernin 28 7 10 1 1 1 5 15 Alexander 37 8 11 7 9 6 3 23 Galloway 20 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 Cartwright 20 1 4 0 0 5 2 2 Silva 0+ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gillman 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Moeller 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Team 3 Totals 200 25 47 13 16 26 18 66Key: mp-minutes played. fgm-field goals made. fga-field goals attempted. ftm-free throws made. fta-free throws attempted. reb-rebounds. pf-personal fouls. pts-points scored.Halftime score--UTEP 35, Hawaii 34.
3-point goals--UTEP 6-20 (Nelson 3-9, Mullahon 1-4, McRae 1-2, Escobedo 0-1, Smith 1-4), UH 3-14 (McIntyre 2-7, White 1-4, Czernin 0-1, Cartwright 0-2).
Assists--UTEP 11 (Fajardo 5), UH 15 (White 7). Turnovers--UTEP 8 (Fajardo, McRae 2), UH 18 (White, Czernin 4). Steals--UTEP 9 (Fajardo 7), UH 3 (Robinson, Czernin, Cartwright 1). Blocked shots--UTEP 1 (Fajardo 1), UH 3 (Robinson 2).
A--7,093. Officials: McKendry, Harris, Spaulding.
