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Friday, February 23, 2001
Hawaii wins for If sport is temporary tonic for troubles, no better example exists than last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
seniors and Jones
UH hits season highs in points
and assists in 102-87
win over TCUBy Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin
A long day that began with the life-threatening car crash of University of Hawaii football coach June Jones ended with the UH basketball team whipping Texas Christian, 102-87, before a frenzied Senior Night crowd of 5,365.
In their typically generous fashion, the Rainbows dedicated the night that belonged to their seniors to Jones -- and then they gave each other a season-high 30 assists.
"Before the game we said, 'This is for him,'" senior forward Nerijus Puida said.
Mike McIntyre's 21 points led the Rainbows to their highest output of the season, avenging a 103-64 thrashing from the Horned Frogs on Jan. 4.
UH shot an astounding 76.7 percent from the floor in the second half, and hit on 61 percent for the game -- its best all season in the WAC.
Five Rainbows scored in double figures. Puida added 19, senior Troy Ostler 18, Mindaugas Burneika 17 and Predrag Savovic 16.
The most satisfying basket was senior Todd Fields' reverse layup as time expired, meaning all four seniors scored."We had to get him in the book, too," said senior Lane O'Connor, who scored his two points in the first half, and dished to Fields for the final bucket.
"The whole scenario was pretty good except, obviously, it was a sad day with June," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "It was a good game to dedicate to him. I thought it was well played. They made their runs at us but we fought those runs off and the guys did what they had to do to win."
With its seventh consecutive home victory, UH improved to 13-12 overall and 7-7 in the WAC.
Hawaii remains in sixth place in the conference. With two road games remaining, it improved its chances of avoiding the "play-in game" between the eighth- and ninth-place teams in next month's WAC Tournament in Tulsa.
TCU fell to 18-9 overall and 7-6 in the WAC.
The Horned Frogs played without guard Greedy Daniels and forward Myron Anthony, both kicked off the team last week. Coach Billy Tubbs did not use that as an excuse in TCU's final visit to Hawaii as a WAC member (it joins Conference USA next season).
"(Hawaii) did a great job shooting the ball. We didn't shoot it that bad, but they shot it really, really well," Tubbs said. "They're a great team at home."TCU shot 50.8 percent for the game, with Ryan Carroll scoring 21 points.
The Horned Frogs made their first five shots to build a 10-4 lead. But the Rainbows came back behind Burneika's (starting for the injured Phil Martin) 4-of-4 shooting in the first half.
It was 44-44 at intermission, as Burneika, Savovic and Ostler each scored 10 points.
UH hit seven consecutive shots early in the second half and Hawaii forced a Tubbs timeout with a 64-53 lead at 13:47.
TCU battled back to 68-64, but four transition buckets on a 16-2 Hawaii run put the Rainbows back in charge.
With a Haim Shimonovich power layup making it 92-72 with 4:10 left and UH breaking TCU's press with ease, the only question was if the Rainbows would hit 100 points.
They did with a monster dunk by Ostler with 30 seconds left.
Then, ironically, Tubbs' timeout with 14 seconds left gave Fields the chance to score the basket he will always remember.
TIP-INS:
Puida and Savovic were named to the five-member All-District VII Academic Team, and are eligible for the national team, which will be announced March 13. ... UH does not play until next Thursday, at San Jose State.
Hawaii 102, Texas Christian 87
Horned Frogs (18-9, 7-6 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Smith 2 6 4 4 29 0 3 8 McTyer 4 11 0 0 28 2 6 9 Davenport 6 9 8 8 23 6 1 20 Carroll 7 9 5 5 37 5 3 21 Merriex 5 10 0 2 33 2 0 11 Allaway 1 3 1 2 23 1 3 3 Dumont 7 13 1 2 25 6 0 15 Paulk 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 32 63 19 23 200 26 16 87
Rainbows (13-12, 7-7 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Savovic 6 10 2 4 20 3 3 16 McIntyre 8 12 2 2 35 3 4 21 Burneika 7 8 3 3 32 3 5 17 Puida 6 10 3 4 39 6 6 19 Ostler 5 12 8 9 32 7 5 18 Shimonovich 1 1 1 2 8 1 0 3 English 1 4 1 4 25 3 6 4 O’Connor 1 1 0 0 8 1 1 2 Fields 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 36 59 20 28 200 30 30 102 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 44, Texas Christian 44.
3-point goals--TCU 4-11 (Carroll 2-3, Merriex 1-2, McTyer 1-5, Smith 0-1); UH 10-18 (Puida 4-7, McIntyre 3-7, Savovic 2-2, English 1-2). Personal fouls--TCU 21, UH 20. Fouled out--Dumont. Technical fouls-Davenport, TCU bench. Steals--TCU 10 (Smith 2, McTyer 2, Davenport 2, Allaway 2, Davenport, Dumont), UH 3 (Savovic, Puida, English). Blocked shots--TCU 3 (Davenport 2, Dumont), UH 3 (Ostler 3). Turnovers--TCU 12 (McTyer 3, Davenport 2, Carroll 2, Allaway 2, Dumont 2, Smith), UH 16 (Burneika 4, Puida 4, McIntyre 3, Savovic 2, English 2, O'Connor). Officials--Self, Cota, Allen. A-7,025 (tickets distributed), 5,365 (turnstile).
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii