Brigham Young-Hawaii had a lot of things in its favor last night against Hawaii Pacific. A loud home crowd, a 22-rebound edge and 11 more trips to the line. But none of those advantages mattered when compared to the simple fact that a college basketball game is 40 minutes long, because Alexus Foyle simply can't be contained for that entire time. BYUH’s Foyle foils HPU
with big second half
By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comFoyle, the nation's second leading scorer in Division II, shrugged off five points on 2-for-9 shooting in the first half to score 21 points in the second half and helped the Seasiders win their 13th home game in a row at the expense of the Sea Warriors, breaking their hearts 84-76 last night at the Cannon Activities Center.
"We had a plan to contain Alexus," Hawaii Pacific coach Russell Dung said. "But I don't think you can stop him for that long. I thought we did a good job in the first half, but in the second we definitely had a mismatch with his great jumping ability. We have to put our best rebounder on Scott Salisbury and you can't forget about (Pablo) Broering."
The Seasiders actually trailed by four points at the half when HPU's Nic Walters, who was not expected to play because of an injured shoulder, entered the game and helped hold the Seasiders scoreless for 5:29 and allow them only one basket in seven minutes. They did it largely by turning the electric Foyle into just another jump shooter.
"They just came and played great defense on me," Foyle said. "They didn't give me a shot. I think in the second half I just calmed down and was a little more careful."
Foyle's version of calming down only excited the crowd. He scored mostly on dunks off Seasider misses. He started hitting his jumpers in the second half, but most of his damage came without the ball. That's just how his coach likes it.
"I've been telling him lately that he's very good on offense and defense with the ball," Seasiders coach Ken Wagner said. "Off the ball is where he has to improve, and he was tremendous tonight."
The Sea Warriors were within one point with 3:47 left when Wagner decided to test Foyle's growth in that area. Wagner told Foyle to guard Sea Warrior point guard Marvin Noble, who killed the Seasiders for 30 points in the game and had just hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one.
Foyle turned the assignment into a chance to win the game.
"I always tell the coach that if a guy gets hot I'm good at defense and want to play him," Foyle said. "He (Noble) is left-handed, so I tried to make him go right, where he's a little bit weaker. I am proud to play defense."
Foyle picked Noble in the backcourt in his first opportunity and was fouled immediately. He hit both shots to run the margin to three. Then he picked a Noble mistake out of the air and scored two more on a putback. In a span of 49 seconds Foyle ran the lead to five, large enough that the Sea Warriors could not recover.
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