GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Carl English drove last night against Hawaii-Hilo's Brady Hyde during the Rainbows' 73-60 victory.
Don't tell Hawaii-Hilo that this one didn't count. The Vulcans weren't listening. Rainbows beat down
fired-up VulcansHawaii survives its Division II
counterparts after a rough startBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThe NCAA Division II baby brothers from the Big Island gave their Division I big brothers all they could handle for most of last night's exhibition basketball game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
An intimate gathering of 2,917 saw Hawaii shake off a two-week layoff to pull away in the second half for a 73-60 victory. Junior guard Michael Kuebler hit four 3-pointers en route to game-high honors of 23, and sophomore forward Nkeruwem Akpan, in his first-ever start, added a career-best 17 points and 10 rebounds.
"We didn't come out as fired up as we should have been," said Kuebler, who was 8 of 13 from the floor, and 4 of 8 from 3-point range. "I would like to think that we'd want to be out there playing hard after killing each other for two weeks. We'll get it going eventually."
Said Akpan, who hit 8 of his 11 field-goal attempts: "They were a good team. I was reading in the papers about the big brother, little brother stuff. And like any big brother, little brother situation, little brother will always come out to prove something.
"They came out fired up. We didn't but we did it. (Coach Riley) Wallace gave me the opportunity of starting and I have to capitalize on it, show him I could do something. Which I did."
Wallace said he knew it wouldn't be smooth after the layoff. Add that to junior Haim Shimonovich going scoreless (0-for-3, but 12 rebounds) and three-year starter Phil Martin out (study-hall violation), Hawaii came out ragged from the opening tip.
For a while, the only thing that was going right for UH was that Kuebler's name was finally spelled correctly on his uniform. The Rainbows' offense sputtered for most of the first half.
Some of that was caused by the Vulcan defense, which had been holding most opponents to under 60 points a game. Some of it was due to Hilo head coach Jeff Law -- a UH assistant for eight years -- who knew the Rainbow offense better than most of the Rainbow players.
About the time the scoreboard started working, so did the Vulcans' offense. Hilo (5-2) used an 8-0 run over two minutes to turn a 13-10 deficit into an 18-13 lead with 11:46 left before halftime.
Junior forward Ryan Hogue scored six of his eight points during that spurt. The Vulcans led until Kuebler's first 3-pointer of the game put the Rainbows up 27-25 with 1:43 to go.
A 3-pointer by a foul-hampered Carl English 47 seconds later gave Hawaii a 30-25 cushion at intermission. The Vulcans opened the second half with three unanswered points to close to 30-28, only to have the Rainbows (2-0) put the game out of reach with a 14-4 run five minutes into the second half.
"We hung with them for a while," Law said. "We lost it toward the end of the first half and the first six minutes in the second. We shot instead of attacking.
"Our concern was rebounding, and it showed. I have to pride the effort of this team. I don't think the guys realize how ragged it is to play seven games in 11 days. But if we give this kind of effort the rest of our games, we'll be fine."
The big concern for Hawaii is its next contest, a road trip to San Diego State for a Saturday game. The host Aztecs lost by eight to No. 1 Arizona last Saturday.
Wallace said he would have preferred having Hilo's game schedule to just practicing the past two weeks. The Rainbows have run through San Diego State's game plan twice and will hit it again starting today.
They'll need to cut down on their turnovers (15) and hit free throws (6 of 13) if they want to be successful against the Aztecs.
"We were getting stale, just practicing against ourselves," he said. "We really needed this game. And when Phil comes back ... it hurts when you lose a guy with his experience, a three-year starter.
"This was a big game for Hilo. We knew they'd be up for us."
Ryan Abrahams led the Vulcans with 19 points, 10 in the first half. Esene Osadonor added 13.
Hawaii won the rebound battle 43-31. After starting off hitting just 35 percent from the floor, the Rainbows finished with 48 percent for the game, including 53 percent in the second half.
Hawaii 73, Hawaii-Hilo 60
VULCANS (5-2)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Hyde 1 11 0 0 28 4 3 2 Bartholomew 2 9 3 4 26 5 0 8 Abrahams 6 11 6 7 31 6 2 19 Esene 3 12 7 9 30 3 2 13 Hogue 4 8 0 0 26 4 0 8 Marsh 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 Read 0 1 0 0 17 3 0 0 Keiter-Charles 1 4 2 2 25 1 4 4 Hall 0 0 2 2 5 1 0 2 Keim 1 1 2 2 9 2 0 4 Team 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 18 58 22 26 200 31 11 60 RAINBOW WARRIORS (2-0)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Shimonovich 0 3 0 2 33 12 3 0 Campbell 2 6 1 3 24 5 11 6 Peciukas 3 9 0 0 18 4 1 6 English 3 8 0 0 22 3 1 8 Akpan 8 11 1 3 34 10 1 17 Lombard 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 Takaki 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 Alama-Francis 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 Zivanovic 1 2 0 0 10 2 0 2 Carter 3 7 1 1 20 3 2 7 Kuebler 8 13 3 4 31 3 0 23 Holliday 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 2 Pickart 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 30 62 6 13 200 43 20 73 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 30, Hawaii-Hilo 25.
3-point goals--Hawaii-Hilo 2-18 (Abrahams 1-4, Bartholomew 1-5, Keiter-Charles 0-1, Esene 0--4, Hyde 0-4), Hawaii 7-26 (Kuebler 4-8, English 2-5, Campbell 1-5, Lombard 0-1, Peciukas 0-3, Carter 0-4). Personal fouls--Hawaii-Hilo 13, Hawaii 19. Steals--Hawaii-Hilo 9 (Abrahams 2, Hyde 2, Keiter-Charles 2, Esene, Hogue, Read), Hawaii 5 (Carter 2, Peciukas 2, Zivanovic). Blocked shots--Hawaii-Hilo 1 (Bartholomew), Hawaii 2 (English, Zivanovic). Turnovers--Hawaii-Hilo 10, Hawaii 15. Officials--Craig Petersen, Ryan Wells, Bryan Barr. A--5,842 (tickets issued).
UH Athletics
UH-Hilo Athletics
