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Friday, January 5, 2001
Road, TCU FORT WORTH, Texas -- Riley Wallace had warned his young team all the way to Texas.
troubles UH
Horned Frogs bust up
the Rainbows in the
heart of TexasStaff and wire reports
"We cannot get into a running game," the Hawaii men's basketball coach told his Rainbows all week while preparing for Texas Christian. "That's what they want us to do. And that's what we cannot do and expect to stay with them."
Hawaii's game plan worked for the first 15 minutes at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. But when the execution broke down, so did the Rainbows.
TCU began its last season in the Western Athletic Conference in rousing fashion, routing the Rainbows, 103-64. The Horned Frogs (11-3, 1-0 WAC) broke the game open with a 40-15 run that bridged the last five minutes of the first half and the first six of the second. The Rainbows (6-6, 0-1) were holding a 26-25 lead before TCU finally started running.
And running Hawaii ragged.
"We just didn't compete and execute the way we did to start the ballgame," Wallace said. "We did the things we needed to do early, but we lost our focus and concentration, and that's playing into their hands."
"Hawaii did a good job defensively the first 10 minutes of the game," TCU coach Billy Tubbs said. "They were getting a lot of two-on-ones and three-on-twos off the press.
"I thought the last five minutes of the first half and most of the second we played really well."
The Frogs couldn't get into their customary transition game for most of the first half because Hawaii was successfully breaking their full-court press. Unable to force the tempo, TCU didn't resemble the team that's leading the nation in scoring.
"We weren't playing our game," said TCU forward Ryan Carroll, who led all scorers with 21 points. "They were slowing us down and we weren't getting up and down the court for easy shots. Once we started getting up and down, they couldn't keep up."
With the trap beginning to work, the easy baskets started coming and the track meet was on. Carroll, Greedy Daniels, Thomas McTyer and Bingo Merriex took turns knocking down wide-open 3-pointers. Derrick Davenport and Myron Anthony cleaned up inside, and Nucleus Smith picked his spots.Those seven Frogs each scored in double figures, marking the second consecutive game TCU had at least six score 10 or more. TCU outrebounded Hawaii, 44-38, and had 10 fewer turnovers, 22-12.
"Our game plan was to break even in rebounding and force 10 more turnovers than we had," Tubbs said.
TCU's double-figure brigade also marked the first time in six seasons that at least five scored in double figures against Hawaii. North Carolina, sporting future NBA stars Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace, also pulled the trick on Dec. 22, 1994.
TCU came into the game averaging an NCAA-best 100.5 points per game. The Frogs scored 61 points in the second half on 61.5 percent shooting, including 8-of-9 from 3-point distance.
The Warriors were without injured guard Mike McIntyre, and a sprained ankle slowed leading scorer and rebounder Troy Ostler.
"Without Ostler and McIntyre, this was a lot more difficult," Wallace said.
Three Rainbows scored in double figures -- Phil Martin with 16, Predrag Savovic with 13, and Nerijus Puida with 11.
Puida and Carl English grabbed eight rebounds apiece.
TCU and Hawaii meet again Feb. 22 in Honolulu. The Frogs lead the series between the schools 7-1 and are 6-0 in Fort Worth.
Hawaii heads to Dallas for tomorrow's game with Southern Methodist University (11 a.m. HST).
TEXAS CHRISTIAN 103, HAWAII 64
Rainbows (6-6, 0-1 WAC)
fg fga ft fta reb a tp min Savovic 6 13 1 3 4 2 13 26 Martin 6 12 4 5 4 3 16 27 Burneika 2 9 4 5 4 0 9 36 Hilton 2 6 2 2 1 2 7 32 Puida 4 6 1 2 8 0 11 28 Takaki 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 Terrell 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 English 1 6 0 0 8 2 2 23 Ostler 1 5 2 3 1 0 4 9 O’Connor 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 8 Fields 0 0 2 2 1 0 2 3 Team 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 Totals 22 60 16 24 36 10 64 200
Horned Frogs (11-3, 1-0 WAC)
fg fga ft fta reb a tp min Carroll 7 10 2 2 3 4 21 31 Anthony 6 13 1 2 11 0 14 27 Dumont 1 4 1 2 4 0 3 20 Smith 6 10 0 1 5 1 12 20 McTyer 4 7 0 0 4 4 10 19 Allaway 1 1 0 0 3 4 2 18 Davenport 5 15 5 5 6 2 15 24 Merriex 4 6 2 3 4 1 11 17 Daniels 5 8 2 2 1 4 15 23 Paulk 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Team 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 Totals 39 75 13 17 44 20 103 200 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 score-TCU 42, Hawaii 30
3-point goals-Hawaii 4-17 (Puida 2-3, Burneika 1-3, Hilton 1-2, Savovic 0-5, English 0-4), TCU 12-17 (Carroll 5-6, Daniels 3-5, McTyer 2-2, Merriex 1-2, Anthony 1-1, Smith 0-1). Personal fouls-Hawaii 23, TCU 20. Fouled out-Savovic. Steals-Hawaii 7 (Martin 2, Hilton 2, Puida 2, Burneika), TCU 13 (Allaway 4, Daniels 3, Davenport 2, Anthony, Smith, McTyer, Merriex). Blocked shots-Hawaii 2 (Burneika, Ostler), TCU 11 (Carroll 4, Davenport 4, Dumont 2, Smith).
Turnovers-Hawaii 22 (English 5, Savovic 4, Hilton 3, Martin 2, Puida 2, Terrell 2, Ostler, O'Connor, Fields), TCU 12 (Allaway 3, Daniels 3, Smith 2, Davenport 2, Dumont, McTyer). Technicals-TCU bench. Officials-Welmer, Clougherty, Hall. A-3,825.
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