Tuesday, December 28, 1999
Nerijus escape
Puida's last-second basket helps
'Bows beat BradleyColorado 79, Villanova 56
By Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinWhen Nerijus Puida disappears behind a screen of bodies on the baseline, good things seem to happen for the University of Hawaii men's basketball team.
"The kid makes good cuts and he's smart," said UH head coach Riley Wallace after his team stunned Bradley, 67-63, in the last second before 5,685 fans in the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic last night.
Like the cartoon character Road Runner who emerges from a cloud of dust with the situation in his favor and his rival in a shambles, the small forward from Lithuania did his thing on the baseline when Hawaii needed him most.
With the clock counting down, Puida cut backdoor while Johnny White was passing to Marquette Alexander in the low post.
But the ball went through Alexander's legs. Puida, who had had shaken free of his man, found it, did a reverse layup and broke a 63-63 tie.
36TH OUTRIGGER HOTELS
RAINBOW CLASSICToday's games: Gonzaga vs. Ohio, 5 p.m.; Wake Forest vs. Oregon, 7:30 p.m.
"Thank God that Nerijus was there," said White, still breathing sighs of relief after the game.
Troy Ostler led all scorers with 19 points as the Rainbows won their fourth game in a row and improved to 9-2. Bradley fell to 4-5.
Puida finished with 12 points while White had 11, and Alexander added 10 points and and nine rebounds.
Hawaii will face Colorado (7-2) tomorrow at 8:07 p.m. in the semifinals.
The first-round continues tonight when Gonzaga (7-3) takes on Ohio (7-3) at 5:07 p.m. and Oregon (6-1) meets Wake Forest (7-1) at 7:37 p.m.
"I'm just glad that Nerijus made the shot and we didn't have to play an extra five minutes because we need our legs for Wednesday and Thursday," said White.
"You want the ball definitely to go to his hands because he makes great decisions and great plays -- a clutch player," said Ostler.
"He's a special kind of guy and I'm glad we have him," said Alexander.
"He (Puida) had five turnovers but he had seven assists and that's what you want to see," said Wallace. "Most of his turnovers were the sloppy kind he usually doesn't make, but that was because of the pressure."
Puida, who came in with a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio, also played a big role in keeping Bradley's leading scorer, Rob Dye (17 points), in check for the last few minutes of the game.
"When we moved him over on Dye at the end, that was a big play because Dye didn't get as many easy buckets," said Wallace.
Both White and Mike McIntyre were whistled for four fouls each while guarding the slippery Braves guard who led three Bradley players in double digits.
Puida also had four fouls. But at 6-5, he had four inches on Dye. The mismatch worked.
"It was also a big decision to keep White in there with four fouls," said Wallace. White got his fourth with 10:23 left in the game.
"But he had a lot of minutes last year and he knew how to do it, and once we took him off of Dye, he was a little safer," said Wallace.
White not only assisted on the winner but he nailed the coffin on Bradley by stealing the inbounds pass with a half second left and laying in the final two points.
White broke the fifth of six second-half ties with a layup to give Hawaii a 63-61 lead with 1:01 left. But Ed Cage hit a 19-footer from the left baseline with 26 seconds later to tie it again.Hawaii called a 30-second timeout with 28.5 seconds left to devise a way to avoid overtime.
"We wanted to run G-game through two times because that would take about 20 seconds off the clock, then we wanted to get it 1-4 low with 10 seconds left," said White. "But we got into 1-4 early because they really weren't pressuring out on the ball. I just held it on top and dribbled to the corner, then tried to get it to Marquette."
Puida said he cut because he thought of the possibility of something going wrong.
"I was on baseline because I think maybe somebody will not catch ball, so I will cut through and get ball if that happens," he said.
"I think we showed we will fight with every team and never give up."
Bradley head coach Jim Molinari blamed a lapse in defensive concentration.
"He (Puida) cut to the basket and our guy didn't go with him," said Molinari.
"Or he (Bradley defender) wasn't as intense as he (Puida) was."
It was Hawaii's second win in as many games against a Missouri Valley Conference opponent.
The Rainbows ended Creighton's nine-game win streak Wednesday in the Nike Festival.
Hawaii won despite 20 turnovers and 0-for-8 shooting for 3-point land.
But Bradley shot 37 percent to Hawaii's 47 percent for the game. Though Dye led his team in scoring, he was a disappointing 5-for-16 from the field.
Hawaii played from behind for stretches of four and five minutes during the second half as Bradley trapped with success.
The Rainbows narrowly outrebounded, Bradley 38-36. They won the defensive battle, 28-20.
Ostler, who usually scores with layins and jam, made five short jumpers that kept Hawaii in the game.
"They were going down on Quette (Marquette Alexander) and bringing my post guy down, so I had to stay up top and hit my jump shot," he said.
Alexander had all of his 10 points and four rebounds in the first half to lead Hawaii to a 34-30 lead.
Hawaii had 11 turnovers to Bradley's five in the half but shot 51 percent from the floor to Bradley's 35 percent.
Hawaii outrebounded Bradley, 21-17, in the half.
The Rainbows' lead was as high as seven (16-9) after Ostler's baby jumper from the lane.
Colorado 79, Villanova 56: In the opener, senior guard Jacquay Walls scored 32 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Buffaloes improved to 7-2.
The Wildcats fell to 4-3.
"He's been the backbone of the team all season long," said Buffaloes head coach Ricardo Patton. "He's the guy who makes things go for us. He's a guy who can defend, score, take you off the dribble. He's been very focused this year."
Villanova came out in a man-to-man defense but Colorado ran out to a 15-0 lead.
Patton said Villanova's zone initially bothered his offense but the Buffaloes soon solved that too.
Walls, who is considered a NBA prospect, said Hawaii was one of his final two choices as a recruit out of junior college.
"I was very close to coming here," said Walls. "The coaches -- Coach Riley and Bob Nash -- were real cool and also the players, and it was just a nice atmosphere. I told my teammates this is a great arena."
Hawaii 67, Bradley 63
Braves (4-6)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Dye 5 16 6 6 36 1 2 17 Clancy 2 5 0 0 23 3 1 5 Hall 1 2 2 4 27 4 1 4 Brown 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 0 Cage 6 17 0 0 33 7 0 12 Rabey 1 2 1 2 3 1 0 3 Roberson 1 6 1 5 31 4 4 3 Selby 6 10 2 2 20 6 1 14 Flanders 1 2 1 2 9 1 0 3 J. Robinson 1 3 0 0 11 4 1 2 Koita 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 24 64 13 21 200 36 10 63Rainbows (9-2)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Savovic 1 6 7 8 31 2 1 9 White 5 8 1 2 30 3 1 11 Puida 4 7 4 5 31 7 7 12 Ostler 8 11 3 5 35 7 1 19 Alexander 4 7 2 3 35 9 4 10 McIntyre 0 3 0 0 10 0 0 0 McIntosh 1 4 0 0 8 1 1 2 G. Robinson 1 3 0 0 15 5 2 2 O'Connor 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 Fields 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 25 53 17 23 200 38 17 67Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.Halftime-Hawaii 34, Bradley 30.
3-point goals--Bradley 2-13 (Clancy 1-3, Dye 1-8, Roberson 0-1, J. Robinson 0-1); UH 0-8 (Savovic 0-2, O'Connor 0-2, Puida 0-2, McIntyre 0-1, G. Robinson 0-1). Personal fouls--Bradley 19, UH 20. Fouled out--None. Steals--Bradley 10 (Roberson 3), UH 7 (G. Robinson 3, Puida 2). Blocked shots--Bradley 2 (J. Robinson 2), UH 3 (Savovic 1, Ostler 1, Alexander 1). Turnovers--Bradley 12, UH 20. Officials--Tom Harrington, Mark Whitehead, Kelly Self. A-8,004.
Colorado 79, Villanova 56
VILLANOVA: Lynch 1-8 2-2 5, Sales 3-6 0-0 7, Allen 1-10 5-6 7, B.Smith 1-4 0-1 2, Medley 2-5 0-0 4, Matthews 3-4 0-0 6, Wright 4-6 1-1 9, Buchanan 3-7 0-0 7, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Holley 1-4 0-0 2, Caouette 2-3 0-0 5. Totals: 22-60 8-10 56COLORADO: W.Smith 2-6 3-4 7, Mosley 6-9 0-2 12, Fox 4-8 0-0 8, Winston 1-2 3-4 5, Walls 10-17 9-14 32, Williams 2-4 0-0 4, Sanders 0-1 0-0 0, Mohr 0-6 0-0 0, Pelle 2-4 7-8 11. Totals: 27-57 22-32 79
Halftime--Colorado 36, Villanova 25.
3-point goals--Villanova 4-19 (Sales 1-1, Caouette 1-2, Buchanan 1-4, Lynch 1-6, B.Smith 0-1, Medley 0-2, Holley 0-3), Colorado 3-13 (Walls 3-6, Williams 0-2, Mohr 0-5). Rebounds--Villanova 30 (Wright 6), Colorado 43 (Walls 9), Assists--Villanova 11 (B.Smith 5), Colorado 10 (Winston 5). Total fouls--Villanova 21, Colorado 15. Fouled out-None.
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