GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Phil Martin put up a shot over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Kemar Burrowes last night. The Rainbows won easily.

Team effort
nets UH 100

The Rainbows hammer
the Islanders to win the
Tip-Off Tournament

Stats

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

The Hawaii basketball team got exactly what it wanted out of the Hawaiian Airlines Tip-Off Tournament -- two wins and a chance to see its newcomers mesh with the veterans.

The Rainbows (2-0) won the tournament title with a 100-81 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi (1-1) last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Six Rainbows scored in double figures, led by Haim Shimonovich's 18-point performance on 8-of-10 shooting. Carl English drained four 3-pointers and finished with 17 points, while Phil Martin made 6 of 7 field-goal attempts to score 15 points.

"It was just preparation," Shimonovich said. "We came ready to play mentally and the guys passed the ball well. We proved everybody can score. When six guys score it's hard to stop us."

The game marked the 36th time a Hawaii team scored 100 points. The last was Feb. 22, 2001, in a 102-87 win over Texas Christin.

Shimonovich was named the tournament's most valuable player. English and Michael Kuebler, who scored 12 points, joined Shimonovich on the all-tournament team.

Newcomers Kuebler, Jason Carter (12 points) and Vaidotas Peciukas complemented the returnees in Hawaii's scoring binge.

As a team, the Rainbows hit 10 of 19 shots from behind the 3-point line. UH also registered 27 assists on its 39 total baskets.

"We got a full course of big-time play tonight from a good team," said Texas A&M-CC coach Ronnie Arrow. "The main thing we had to do tonight was guard the 3-point shooting and it was atrocious."

The Rainbows overcame the hot shooting of TAMCC's Derrick Murphy and Brian Evans to extend their home winning streak to 14 games dating back to last December.

Evans finished with a game-high 25 points and Murphy dropped in 23 to also earn spots on the all-tournament team.

"It's tough to guard a guy when he has all that freedom," English said of Evans. "Their offense was pick and roll for that guy all night."

"Defensively we should do better than that," Shimonovich said. "We can't score 100 every night."

The Islanders matched Hawaii shot for shot in the early going and took their only lead of the first half at 21-20 at the 9:31 mark.

The Rainbows reclaimed the lead on Tony Akpan's jumper and Martin scored Hawaii's next five points to extend the advantage.

Evans, wearing a mask to protect a broken nose suffered in practice last month, tried to keep the Islanders close, blowing by Carter for a layup to cut TAMCC's deficit to 31-25. But Carter returned the favor by hitting a 3-pointer to keep UH in command.

Hawaii took control for good late in the first half as Carter, Kuebler and Mark Campbell drained 3-pointers.

The Rainbows went into halftime with a 50-36 lead after hitting 6 of 10 from behind the arc and shooting better than 60 percent from the field.

The Rainbows maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half. TAMCC got within 11 at 63-52 on a Murphy jumper at the 15:30 mark. But the Rainbows broke away with two Kuebler shots and weren't threatened again.

Hawaii cleared its bench at the end of the game with freshman Ikaika Alama-Francis hitting a free throw with 29.6 seconds left to break the 100-point mark.

"We said we're a team and we're going to look for each other," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "And they were able to create all of that out of the offense on their own."

Third-Place Game

Arkansas Little-Rock 56, Cal State Fullerton 43: Jibrahn Ike made seven of his nine shots from the field, including all three from 3-point range, as the Trojans (1-1) rolled past the Titans (0-2).

Ike finished with 19 points to lead all scorers.

Pape Sow and Ralphy Holmes scored 10 each for Cal State Fullerton.

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Hawaii 100, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 81

Islanders (1-1)	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Evans	9	16	5	5	36	2	6	25
Bailey, Th.	4	9	4	4	37	6	3	12
Bailey, Tr.	4	10	0	0	31	4	1	10
Murphy	9	13	5	5	38	7	0	23
Lamkin	1	3	1	2	12	0	0	3
Burrowes	3	5	0	0	9	0	0	6
Jackson	1	2	0	0	20	2	0	2
White	0	3	0	0	10	1	1	0
Hemsley	0	3	0	0	5	0	0	0
Edwards	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Cole	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Team	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0
Totals	31	65	15	16	200	29	11	81
Rainbows (2-0)	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Martin	6	7	3	3	23	2	0	15
Shimonovich	8	10	2	2	32	5	2	18
Campbell	1	4	0	0	24	0	9	3
Peciukas	4	5	2	3	14	6	0	10
English	6	11	1	2	36	7	6	17
Lombard	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Takaki	0	0	2	2	1	0	0	2
Alama-Francis	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	1
Zivanovic	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Carter	4	7	1	2	15	3	1	12
Kuebler	5	13	0	0	27	2	7	12
Holliday	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	2
Pickart	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Akpan	4	5	0	0	22	2	2	8
Team	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
Totals	39	65	12	16	200	33	27	100

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 50, UTAM-CC 36.
3-point goals -- UTAM-CC 4-12 (Bailey 2-5, Evans 2-3, White 0-2, Th. Bailey 0-1, Burrowes 0-1); Hawaii 10-19 (English 4-8, Carter 3-4, Kuebler 2-4, Campbell 1-2). Personal fouls -- UTAM-CC 18, Hawaii 18. Technical fouls -- none. Steals -- UTAM-CC 1 (Tr. Bailey); Hawaii 8 (Akpan 3, Campbell 2, Martin, Takaki, Carter). Blocked shots -- UTAM-CC 2 (Th. Bailey 2); Hawaii 1 (Akpan). Turnovers -- UTAM-CC 13 (Tr. Bailey 5, Evans 3, Th. Bailey 2, Jackson, White, Edwards); Hawaii 12 (Shimonovich 5, Martin 2, Peciukas 2, English 2, Campbell). Officials -- Jerry White, Bobby Hunt, Donovan Lewis. A -- 6,344.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Haim Shimonovich, Hawaii

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM

Jibrahn Ike, Arkansas Little-Rock
Carl English, Hawaii
Brian Evans, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Travis Bailey, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Michael Kuebler, Hawaii

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UH Athletics