Monday, February 8, 1999
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’Bows high after
By Pat Bigold
upset of N. Mexico
Star-BulletinPumped by their upset of a nationally ranked team at Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night, the Hawaii men's basketball team gets ready to go on the road for three key games.
The Rainbows will travel to Brigham Young for a Thursday game, then move on to play No. 14 Utah on Saturday.
The Rainbows need to climb from seventh to sixth place to qualify for the WAC tournament. The Cougars currently occupy sixth.
On Saturday night, the Rainbows defeated then-No. 17 New Mexico, 72-68, despite being without leading scorer Marquette Alexander, who is nursing a deep thigh bruise. The loss helped drop the Lobos to No. 25 in the AP poll released today.
With starting forwards Philipp Czernin and Mike Robinson in foul trouble and guard Casey Cartwright limited by knee problems, Rainbow coach Riley Wallace turned to his bench.He found 6-2 freshman, Mike McIntyre (19 points) to lead four Hawaii players into double figures.
The performance might have earned McIntyre the right to start more often. Wallace said he's delighted with the guard's attitude.
"He's a very good kid, a good student -- he's got the full package," he said.
He also found that 6-4 sophomore forward Gary Gillman could contribute. "He played really good defense," said Wallace.
"What we want to make sure of now is that they know how they won," he said. "Playing together, keeping the offense going and really getting after it defensively."
Senior forward Erin Galloway looked his old self with 12 points, eight boards and three blocks.
Robinson shot 6-for-17 and fouled out. But most of his scores were timely. And Wallace said he liked Robinson's defense on Lobos star Kenny Thomas (25 points).
Wallace said the controversy over the last-second basket by New Mexico's Thomas in regulation should be moot. "The rule says it had to be a tip with 0.3 to go in order to count," he said. "You cannot catch the ball and shoot it, and that's what was done."
