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Friday, February 11, 2000
’Bows not
smart enough in
road loss
Texas Christian defeats UH
Star-Bulletin staff
despite a team season-high 27 points
by 'intelligent' reserve
Lane O'ConnorFORT WORTH, Texas - The Hawaii men's basketball team's top scholar became its top scorer last night.
But even junior Lane O'Connor's surprising 27 points off the bench -- the best individual scoring effort by a Rainbow this season -- couldn't change the outcome of Hawaii's fourth Western Athletic Conference road game.
Texas Christian used an effective trapping defense and broke Hawaii down one-on-one to score a 106-96 home-court victory last night at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
It was Hawaii's second straight loss and third WAC road loss of the season.
The Rainbows, who beat TCU at home on Jan. 15, dropped to 4-5 in the WAC and 15-7 overall. The Horned Frogs improved to 5-4 in the WAC and 14-11 overall.
Hawaii has never won at TCU in four tries.
The Rainbows will play tomorrow (3:35 p.m. HST) at Southern Methodist (6-3, 18-5), a team that beat them, 79-73, at home on Jan. 12.
The Mustangs defeated visiting San Jose State (3-5, 12-11), 62-51, last night.
O'Connor had averaged 2.7 points and 10.8 minutes coming off the bench in 18 games. He was shooting 29 percent.
Last night, he played 26.5 minutes and shot 73 percent while leading five Rainbows in double figures.
Marquette Alexander had 17 points, Nerijus Puida had 16 points and nine assists, Troy Ostler had 14 points and Johnny White had 11 points and six assists.
Marquise Gainous led four Horned Frogs in double digits with 27 points.
"He's (O'Connor) a very intelligent kid (3.75 grade point average) and very confident," said Hawaii head coach Riley Wallace.
"What we recruited him to do was to shoot 3's, because that's what he did well in junior college. But he never got as many wide-open looks before, never got that many minutes either."
The 6-foot-7 O'Connor scored 14 points in 14 minutes in the first half, hitting five of his first six shots, and 13 in the last 12.5 minutes of the game.
Wallace said O'Connor, who nailed four of six 3-point attempts in the game, got many of his opportunities because he was left open in the corner of the attacking zone when Hawaii was able to break through TCU's trapping defense.
Wallace expects O'Connor to draw more defensive coverage in future games, but he said he will continue to be the first man off the bench "at the big spot."
Bernard McIntosh, another 6-7 junior, filled that role until he left the team last week.
Wallace said O'Connor was the "best defender on the floor" for Hawaii last night and he was pleased with the way the Vancouver, Wash., native managed to score under the glass a couple of times -- once while being bumped.
The Rainbows were hurt badly at the line.
They had only 13 free throw shots last night and made only six while TCU was converting 26 of 37.
"That tells you our defense was not good," said Wallace.
"They were going by us, we were reaching out to grab or going to block shots when they went by us."
Wallace said that when he called for zone defense it was effective.
"But when they wanted to take us one on one, they took us," he said.
TCU 106, Hawaii 96
Rainbows (15-7, 4-5 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA REB A TP MIN Savovic 2 7 0 1 2 1 5 24 Ostler 5 10 4 8 7 5 14 26 Alexander 8 18 1 2 7 1 17 26 White 5 6 0 0 7 6 11 29 Puida 8 11 0 0 7 9 16 39 McIntyre 1 3 0 0 0 1 2 12 Robinson 2 6 0 0 1 3 4 17 O’Connor 11 15 1 2 5 1 27 26 Stovall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Team 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 42 76 6 13 36 27 96 200
Horned Frogs (14-11, 5-4 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA REB A TP MIN Gainous 10 18 7 8 7 1 27 31 Paulk 2 2 0 0 2 0 4 10 McTyer 4 5 4 6 2 8 13 29 Laster 8 11 5 7 3 5 21 37 Carroll 6 12 2 2 4 5 18 32 Allaway 0 2 1 2 2 2 1 11 Davenport 3 8 2 5 3 0 8 23 Anthony 3 5 2 2 1 0 8 14 Merriex 1 3 3 5 4 1 6 13 Team 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 Totals 37 66 26 37 35 22 106 200 Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime-TCU 57, Hawaii 39.
3-point goals--UH 6-13 (O'Connor 4-6, White 1-1, Savovic 1-3, Robinson 0-1, Puida 0-1, McIntyre 0-1). TCU 6-14 (Carroll 4-8, McTyer 1-1, Merriex 1-3, Gainous 0-2). Personal fouls--UH 26, TCU 17. Technical--UH bench 1. Fouled out--O'Connor. Steals--UH 11 (Alexander 4), TCU 10 (Laster 4). Blocked shots--UH 6 (Alexander 3), TCU 3 (Paulk 2). Turnovers--UH 22, TCU 24. Officials--Tom O'Neil, Mark Whitehead, Steve Welmer. A-4,277.
WAC men
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Tulsa 7 1 .875 22 2 .917 Fresno State 6 1 .857 16 7 .696 SMU 5 3 .625 17 5 .773 Hawaii 4 4 .500 15 6 .714 Texas Christian 4 4 .500 13 11 .542 San Jose State 3 4 .429 12 10 .545 Texas-El Paso 2 6 .250 11 10 .524 Rice 0 8 .000 4 16 .200
Last night's results
TCU 106, Hawaii 96SMU 62, San Jose State 51
Tomorrow's games
Hawaii at SMU, 3:35 p.m. HSTSan Jose State at TCU
Fresno State at UTEP
RealAudio: Click here
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
