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Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Rainbows Hawaii men's basketball coach Riley Wallace said there's no way his team should be ranked sixth in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference.
treat fans to win
over Stars
Ostler, McIntyre combine for
27 points as the UH men's
basketball team beats the
California All-StarsBy Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin"Probably eighth," Wallace deadpanned last night at the Stan Sheriff Center, minutes after the Rainbows had overwhelmed the California West All-Stars in an exhibition game, 90-64.
It was a good two-second count before the coach chuckled -- because he was only half joking. "We're about 25 percent of where we need to be for our opener (Nov. 17 against Louisville)," Wallace said.
He conceded that the Rainbows provided many more treats than tricks to the pleasure of about 1,958 Halloween night fans -- as well as one head coach.
"I saw a lot of good things. They looked for each other and made the extra pass," Wallace said. "It was a strong team showing. The defense is much improved over a year ago at this point. Very unselfish."
While everybody else was handing out candy to strangers, the Rainbows were giving each other sweet passes. UH finished with 27 assists and only 16 turnovers.
And Hawaii's defense was so good it was, well, spooky.
"We've been concentrating on defense in practice. We weren't sure it would translate out here, but it did," said post Troy Ostler, who led UH with 16 points. "We helped each other and filled the gaps."
The Rainbows built a 24-12 lead in the first nine minutes. Eight of their nine baskets to that point were aided by assists.Junior Mike McIntyre -- somewhat of a surprise starter at point guard -- ran the offense effectively, finding open men when he wasn't planting jumpers of his own. He scored 11 points, dealt six helpers and turned the ball over only once.
"We did a lot of things well," said McIntyre, when asked to nit-pick. "Maybe conditioning can improve. Probably boxing out and playing better defense in the second half."
The thing to remember, of course, is that Hawaii wasn't going up against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The California West All-Stars were playing their first game together after only three practices.
Coach Frank Arnold was painfully aware of that fact, but still generous in his praise of this version he coached 15 years ago.
"(UH) showed great energy. They outhustled us, which surprised me. I thought they might outplay us, but I didn't think they'd outhustle us," Arnold said. "They're a fine ballclub."
If last night was any indication, the Rainbows could be very deep.
Forwards Phil Martin and Mindaugas Burneika were impressive in just 16 and 15 minutes, respectively.
Martin dominated the glass (10 rebounds, five offensive) and Burneika made all five shots he took. -- partly because he was always open when he fired, thanks to effective picks and smart passes by teammates.
"I'm happy because I can see us becoming a good team," Burneika said. "There's still a lot of work to do, but this is a good start."
Hawaii 90, West California 64
All-Stars
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Akina 1 3 0 0 21 4 3 3 Andrews 0 2 0 0 16 1 2 0 Bostik 2 7 1 2 20 0 1 5 Williams 6 9 1 3 25 7 0 13 Abney 5 8 5 8 28 5 2 15 Hazzard 2 2 4 4 10 1 0 10 Pemberthy 1 9 0 1 20 0 2 3 Anderson 2 8 5 7 25 6 0 9 Young 1 5 3 5 17 3 1 6 Mahaffey 0 3 0 0 18 5 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 20 56 19 30 200 36 11 64 Rainbows
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Savovic 3 5 3 4 13 2 2 9 McIntyre 4 8 0 0 27 4 6 11 Shimonovic 2 7 0 0 19 6 2 4 Puida 2 3 2 2 15 1 3 8 Ostler 7 11 2 3 18 3 1 16 Martin 3 7 3 5 16 10 0 9 Radovic 2 3 0 0 12 4 1 4 Hilton 3 6 0 0 14 1 2 9 Takaki 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Terrell 1 4 2 2 17 2 5 5 Burneika 5 5 0 0 15 3 0 11 English 1 6 0 0 13 1 3 2 Holliday 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 O’Connor 0 0 0 0 8 0 2 0 Fields 1 2 0 0 10 1 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 34 67 12 16 200 40 27 90 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-Hawaii 49, California West 24.
3-point goals--CW 5-24 (Hazzard 2-2, Akina 1-3, Young 1-4, Pemberthy 1-5, Andrews 0-1, Mahaffey 0-1, Williams 0-1, Bostik 0-3, Anderson 0-4); UH 10-20 (Hilton 3-5, McIntyre 3-6, Puida 2-2, Burneika 1-1, Terrell 1-3, English 0-3). Personal fouls--CW 21, UH 25. Fouled out--None. Technical fouls-None. Steals--CW 14 (Akina 5, Andrews 2, Abney 2, Anderson 2, Young, Mahaffey, Bostik), UH 7 (Hilton 2, Terrell 2, Savovic, McIntyre, O'Connor). Blocked shots--CW 3 (Young, Mahaffey, Abney), UH 0. Turnovers--CW 23 (Abney 7, Akina 3, Andrews 3, Bostik 3, Anderson 3, Hazzard 2, Williams, Pemberthy), UH 16 (Ostler 2, Radovic 2, Terrell 2, Savovic, McIntyre, Shimonovic, Puida, Martin, Hilton, Takaki, Burneika, O'Connor, Fields).
Officials--Yamashita, Lewis, Yoshida. A-3,500 (tickets distributed).
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii