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Thursday, January 13, 2000
Mustangs’
finishing kick puts
away Rainbows
Hawaii erases an 18-point deficit
By Pat Bigold
but SMU answers with a late
run to pull out the win
Star-BulletinHawaii staged its most dramatic comeback of the season last night and had 4,579 fans shaking the foundations of the Stan Sheriff Center.
Rallying from an 18-point deficit with 14:46 left to a one-point lead with 5:31 to go, the Rainbows made Southern Methodist wonder what hurricane just blew away their game plan.
It was the kind of momentum turn that would have put most teams on the ropes.
But then the Rainbows found out how good the SMU Mustangs really are.
"We just couldn't finish," was the somber postscript a dejected Predrag Savovic (14 points) put on the night as he walked slowly from the locker room.
With Hawaii ahead, 68-67, and 2:50 left, SMU came up with a 12-5 run. Consecutive 3-pointers by Jeryl Sasser and Stephen Woods ignited it and the Mustangs came away with a 79-73 win.
"It was a good way to win here because not too many teams do," said SMU head coach Mike Dement.
"They made their runs and we made our runs, and we just had to see who came out with the big play at the end," said Sasser, an All-American candidate.
Hawaii fell to 0-2 in the Western Athletic Conference and 11-4 overall. SMU improved to 2-0 in the WAC and 14-2 overall.
"They're the best team we've played in here," said Hawaii head coach Riley Wallace.
"I don't think they (Rainbows) took them lightly but I don't think they really knew how good SMU is. We watched film and we talked to them about it but I don't think they prepared themselves. SMU is better than Colorado and Oregon or anybody we've played."
Woods, SMU's 6-foot senior point guard, scored 20 points to lead his team, while Marquette Alexander scored a game-high 24 (20 in the second half) to lead Hawaii.
Willie Davis had 18, while Sasser had 17 (plus three key steals) and Damon Hancock added 13 for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs used a trapping, pressing defense to completely disorient the Hawaii offense in the first half.
The Rainbows started the second half down, 33-26, but closed it to 33-30.
Sasser then scored nine points on a 15-0 run to make it 48-30.
But Alexander had 16 of his points during a 32-13 run that put Hawaii ahead on a layup by Johnny White to make it 62-61.
"They really locked up on us defensively as well as anybody we've seen this year," said Dement. "They forced some turnovers with nobody back and that helped them. But we came back to make some big plays against a tough defense."
Hawaii's Troy Ostler, the 6-foot-9 junior forward who was coming off his third double-double of the season in a loss at UTEP last weekend, was shackled.
Ostler, who entered as the NCAA's 22nd leading field goal percentage shooter, wound up with two points in the first half and nine for the game. He played only about six minutes of the second half as 6-8 junior Bernard McIntosh came off the bench as a better matchup for the 6-6 Davis.
McIntosh kept Hawaii in the game with 10 points in the first half and finished with 16.
After SMU assumed a 73-68 on the Sasser and Woods treys, Mike McIntyre hit a trey of his own from the baseline to narrow it to 73-71 with 49 seconds left.
But Alexander then picked up his fourth and fifth fouls against Davis and then Sasser within the next 11 seconds.
Each made one of two at the line to jack the SMU lead to 75-71 before consecutive layups by Davis off a steal and a break.
Both teams shot 45 percent from the floor and Hawaii outrebounded SMU, 40-30.
But the Rainbows committed 21 turnovers and the Mustangs scored 23 points off 11 of them.
Hawaii scored only two points off eight first half SMU turnovers but had nine points off the Mustangs' four second half turnovers.
Hawaii shot 14 for 16 from the line but SMU was 16 for 23.
Hawaii's top two assist men had subpar games and that also hurt.
White and small forward Nerijus Puida had 10 turnovers between them.
The pair produced only seven assists and two points.
SMU 79, HAWAII 73
Mustangs (14-2, 2-0 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Hancock 3 4 6 6 31 2 6 13 Sasser 6 17 3 6 36 2 4 17 Woods 7 15 3 5 31 2 2 20 Davis 7 14 4 6 33 4 0 18 Floyd 2 3 0 0 18 4 0 4 Ross 2 4 0 0 21 1 2 5 Kelley 0 1 0 0 6 1 0 0 Forinash 1 4 0 0 19 7 2 2 Niemi 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 28 62 16 23 200 30 16 79Rainbows (11-4, 0-2 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Savovic 5 14 3 3 37 6 0 14 White 1 7 0 0 40 2 4 2 Puida 0 1 0 0 25 4 3 0 Ostler 3 7 3 5 23 3 2 9 Alexander 8 14 8 8 30 7 0 24 McIntyre 2 5 0 0 13 2 2 6 McIntosh 8 13 0 0 27 8 2 16 G. Robinson 1 1 0 0 5 1 1 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 Totals 28 62 14 16 200 40 14 73Totals28621416200401473Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime-SMU 33, Hawaii 26.
3-point goals--SMU 7-19 (Woods 3-9, Sasser 2-5, Hancock 1-1, Ross 1-2, Davis 0-2); UH 3-11 (McIntyre 2-4, Savovic 1-5, White 0-2). Personal fouls--SMU 17, UH 20. Fouled out--Alexander. Technical fouls-None. Steals--SMU 7 (Sasser 3, Hancock, Woods, Ross, Niemi), UH 3 (Puida, Savovic, White). Blocked shots--SMU 9 (davis 3, forinash 3, floyd 2, Sasser), UH 1 (Savovic). Turnovers--SMU 12, UH 21. Officials--Paul Kaster, Winston Stith, Kelly Self A-4,579
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
