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Monday, February 7, 2000

Rough road ahead
for Rainbows

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Riley Wallace summed up Saturday's 85-77 Hawaii loss to Fresno State at the Stan Sheriff Center in seven words: "They had Courtney Alexander and we didn't."

Alexander, the senior guard projected to be one of the top picks in this year's NBA draft, made only 13 of 27 shots while working against Hawaii's Predrag Savovic.

But he finished with a game-high 30 points, and was sensational scoring 12 in the last five minutes with cat-quick drives and precision jumpers. His effort capped the Bulldogs' comeback from a 10-point, second-half deficit.

"We had heart and they had a lot of athletic ability," said Wallace. "I'm very proud of the team, they played tough but we just had no answer for (Courtney) Alexander."

The Bulldogs improved to 6-1 in the Western Athletic Conference and 16-7 overall while Hawaii fell to 4-4 in the WAC and 15-6 overall.

It was a critical loss for the Rainbows, who now will play four of their final six regular-season WAC games on the road.

Hawaii embarks today on a two-game road trip after winning twice in a three-game homestand..

This trip will take the Rainbows to Texas Christian (13-11, 4-4 WAC) on Thursday and SMU (16-5, 4-3) on Saturday.

Hawaii has only two more games at home, Feb. 17 vs. Tulsa (22-2, 7-1) and Feb. 19 vs. Rice (4-14, 0-7).

After that, Hawaii has games at San Jose State (12-10, 3-4) on Feb. 26 and Fresno State on March 4. The WAC tournament will be played at Fresno State, March 9-11.

The Rainbows will need at least 18 wins to be invited to the National Invitation Tournament.

Savovic, who had 18 points, six assists and two steals, was upset with himself after the Fresno State game.

"God, he's good," he said, referring to Alexander. "I suppose people are mad at me now."

But Wallace said no one could've done a better job against Alexander, and even the Bulldogs' star admitted that Savovic bothered his game.

"He's a heady player," said Alexander. "He doesn't go for a lot of ball fakes. He gets down and plays an aggressive style of basketball, and that's actually the style I like to play against. He doesn't back down and I can only respect people like that."

Hawaii's own Alexander - 6-8 senior center Marquette - finished off the best homestand of his career with his third straight double-double performance. It was his fourth of the season.

Marquette Alexander scored 19 points and hauled in 14 rebounds as Hawaii beat the Bulldogs off the glass, 46-40. His totals for the three-game stand were 58 points and 35 rebounds.

Wallace made it clear that absentee reserve forward Bernard McIntosh is no longer a member of the Rainbows. Asked if missing the 6-7 junior, who has missed two practices in a row, hurt Hawaii's effort, Wallace responded angrily.

"McIntosh is out of the question," he said. "We're not even talking about him anymore so don't even mention him to me again. I don't want to hear his name again. It's over with."

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