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UH wins spot FRESNO, Calif. >> Woof.
atop WAC
English scores 33 points and McIntyre
adds 27 as Hawaii beats Fresno State
The 'Bows earn a share of the WAC
regular-season title and the No. 1
seed in the WAC tournamentBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThose who thought Hawaii had two chances -- slim and none -- to beat Fresno State last night were obviously barking up the wrong tree. With Carl English having an unconscious career night and Mike McIntyre impressing the NBA scouts with his 3-point shooting, the Rainbows claimed a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season basketball title via an 82-79 win over the Bulldogs at Selland Arena.
Hawaii (24-5) left this morning to defend its WAC Tournament title in Tulsa. In Thursday's opening quarterfinal game (8 a.m. Hawaii time), the top-seeded Rainbows will face the winner of Tuesday's play-in game between San Jose State and Rice.
Fresno State (19-13, 9-9), the preseason pick to win the WAC, are seeded sixth and will play Louisiana Tech in Thursday's third quarterfinal game at the Reynolds Center.
The Rainbows expect to have their leading scorer back for the tournament. Senior guard Predrag Savovic was on the bench -- along with his 19.4-point scoring average -- resting a sore back. His absence motivated his teammates.
"We had to pick up the slack for Savo, he's hard to replace," said English, who finished with a career-high 33 points, 27 coming in the first half. "Me and Mike (McIntyre) stepped up to the challenge.
"I was feeling pretty good, everything was dropping, inside and outside. I was feeding off the crowd, too. I picked up the slack in the first half and Mike did in the second. We had a lot of faith that we could do it if guys got hot."
It was only the second time in nine visits to the "Dog Pound" that Hawaii has been able to beat Fresno State. The last time was in 1998, when the Red Wave -- a k a the Fresno State boosters -- left early as the Rainbows were putting together a 92-78 victory.
Last night, the sold-out crowd of 10,222 stayed put until the last heart-stopping seconds. They saw Melvin Ely's senior night party spoiled when Damon Jackson failed to get a desperation shot off in time.
"English was absolutely sensational," said Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian. "He looked like (NBA great) Jerry West out there.
"And McIntyre was unbelievable in the second half. Some of those shots were beyond NBA 3-point range.
"I thought we did some things defensively that confused them, but then they shot the lights out."
Hawaii shot 53 percent from the floor, 44 percent from 3-point range (14 of 32). While English had just one 3-pointer in the second half, McIntyre had three, including the game-clinching trey with 33.4 seconds to go.
With Fresno State closing in at 79-76, Phil Martin missed his baseline jumper. The rebound came off to McIntyre, who reset the offense, helped work the shot clock down, then hit his career-high seventh 3-pointer.
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"Coach was stressing that the clock was our enemy," said McIntyre, who finished with 27 points, also a career high. "I knew I needed to grab that rebound and then run some time off."Noel Felix and Jackson had hit the 3-pointers for Fresno State that pulled their team to 79-76. The Bulldogs answered McIntyre's 3-pointer with one by Jackson that made it 82-79 with 9.9 seconds to go.
Tarkanian called his last timeout, hoping his team could steal the inbounds pass. Instead, Travis DeManby was forced to foul McIntyre with 8.9 seconds to go.
"I think I was already thinking about the championship," said McIntyre, who missed the front end of the 1-and-1. "Then all I was thinking about was stopping whatever guy was going to try to take the shot."
With no timeouts left, the Bulldogs frantically looked for a 3-point shot that would tie it. Hawaii's defense pushed the Fresno State shooters way outside until Jackson was forced to take a shot after the horn sounded that was short.
"I thought Carl was amazing, just eye-popping," said McIntyre. "We all knew we had to make up for Savo's points. It was all about having passion and pride. We talked about defense as well as offense. We had to step it up and I think we did."
The unsung hero for the Rainbows was freshman forward Tony Akpan, who played a career-high 22 minutes. With sophomore center Haim Shimonovich in foul trouble, the 6-foot-8, 240-pound Akpan was able to keep a big body on the 6-10, 260-pound Ely.
"Akpan was a big gamble," said Hawaii coach Riley Wallace. "You have no idea what a freshman who hasn't had many minutes will do. He was big tonight and battled Ely.
"Ely got his numbers and he should be a lottery pick (in the NBA draft). I think we made him work tonight and Akpan was a big part of that."
Ely finished with a team-high 25 points, hitting on 11 of 13 shots. He also had 12 rebounds and 3 blocks. Jackson added 21 points and DeManby had 10 rebounds.
Free-throw shooting was the bane of the Bulldogs. Normally a 67 percent shooting team, Fresno State made 58 percent from the line last night. The Bulldogs missed five straight free-throw attempts during the final three minutes before Jackson's two free throws pulled Fresno State to 79-74.
In a shoot-the-lights-out first half, it was aptly tied at the half, 44-44.
The teams combined for 12 first-half 3-pointers, with English hitting 4 of Hawaii's 7 treys, and DeManby hitting three of Fresno State's five.
DeManby hit two consecutive 3-pointers in the final 1:33, including one with 2.1 seconds left before the half that tied it.
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The Rainbows had a 44-41 lead and the ball with 26.2 seconds left, and 12.2 seconds on the shot clock. McIntyre, who had hit his last two 3-point attempts, missed from the top of the key.English tried to save the long rebound, but the ball ended up in the hands of DeManby, who launched it from the right of the key.
The Bulldogs' amoeba defense swallowed Hawaii's inside game. The only points in the paint came on Martin's two baskets, including a garbage putback.
The tug-of-war first half saw nine lead changes and four ties. The Bulldogs led by as many as seven, with Ely shooting over Akpan for his seventh field goal and a 36-29 lead with 6:20 before intermission.
English drove on and over Ely for a basket and one to cut it to 36-32. English added two free throws to pull to 37-34 and McIntyre's second 3-pointer of the half tied it at 37 with 4:19 before intermission.
McIntyre and English combined for the team's last eight points, giving Hawaii a 44-41 lead.
Notes: Wallace said he was very happy about how the tournament bracket worked out. In the bottom half of the pairings are co-champion and host Tulsa, Louisiana Tech and Fresno State ... Ely, the WAC Player of the Year last year as a junior, was honored before tip-off as the Bulldogs' lone senior. Unlike Hawaii, which gives its seniors lei, Ely presented roses to his mother and sister. Ely will leave Fresno State as the school's all-time leader in points, field goals and blocked shots, second in rebounds ... In the arena were scouts from three NBA teams: Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns and Seattle SuperSonics.
FINAL WAC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L *Hawaii 15 3 .833 -- 24 5 Tulsa 15 3 .833 -- 24 5 La Tech 14 4 .778 1 20 8 SMU 10 8 .556 5 15 13 Fresno St. 9 9 .500 6 18 13 Nevada 9 9 .500 6 16 12 Boise St. 6 12 .333 9 12 16 Rice 5 13 .278 10 10 18 San Jose St. 4 14 .222 11 9 21 UTEP 3 15 .167 12 10 21 *Wins regular-season title on tiebreaker
Yesterday
Hawaii 82, Fresno St. 79
Louisiana Tech 86, UTEP 68
Boise St. 80, SMU 63
San Jose St. 76, Nevada 72
End regular seasonWAC TOURNAMENT
At Tulsa, Okla.
March 5-9First round, Tuesday
No. 8 Rice vs. No. 9 San Jose State, 2 p.m.
No. 7 Boise State vs. No. 10 UTEP, 4:30 p.m.Quarterfinals, Thursday
No. 1 Hawaii vs. Rice/SJSU, 8 a.m.
No. 4 SMU vs. No. 5 Nevada, 10:30 a.m.
No. 3 Louisiana Tech vs. No. 6 Fresno State, 2 p.m.
No. 2 Tulsa vs. Boise State/UTEP, 4:30 p.m.Semifinals, Friday
Hawaii/Rice/SJSU vs. SMU/Nevada, 2 p.m.
LaTech/Fresno State vs. Tulsa/BSU/UTEP, 4:30 p.m.Finals, Saturday
Championship, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
Hawaii 82, Fresno State 79
RAINBOWS (24-5, 15-3) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 5 9 0 0 40 2 3 10 Burneika 3 9 0 1 27 0 2 8 English 10 17 8 11 40 7 5 33 Shimonovich 1 2 0 4 10 1 1 7 Campbell 0 1 0 0 35 4 10 0 McIntyre 9 16 2 3 26 3 0 17 Akpan 1 1 0 0 22 5 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 29 55 10 15 200 27 21 82 BULLDOGS (18-13, 9-9) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Jackson 7 16 2 3 38 1 0 21 Felix 2 5 4 6 22 2 0 9 Ely 11 13 3 7 37 12 1 25 Mitchell 3 6 2 2 39 4 9 8 DeManby 3 11 0 2 38 10 7 9 Rasmussen 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 Fuller 1 2 3 4 18 1 0 5 Al-Sayyad 1 2 0 0 3 2 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 28 55 14 24 200 35 18 79 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, FresnoState 44.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 14-32 (Burneika 2-8, English 5-9, Campbell 0-1, McIntyre 7-14), Fresno State 9-21 (Jackson 5-10, Felix 1-1, DeManby 3-10). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 20, Fresno State15. Technical fouls -- none. Steals -- Hawaii 12 (Martin 4, English 3, Burneika, Shimonovich, Campbell, McIntyre, Akpan); Fresno State 7 (Fuller 3, DeManby 2, Jackson, Mitchell). Blocked shots -- Hawaii e (Burneika, Shimonovich, Akpan); Fresno State 2 (Ely, Fuller). Turnovers -- Hawaii 13 (English 5, Martin 4, McIntyre 2, Campbell, Akpan); Fresno State 14 (DeManby 4, Ely 3, Mitchell 3, Jackson 2, Felix, Fuller). Officials -- White, Darien, Ferrie. A -- 10,220.
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