DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Nkeruwem Akpan dunked for two of his 10 points last night against Rice.
UH finally Jinx schminx.
gets a ‘W’
English hits the 1,000-point
plateau as the Rainbows beat
the Owls to end their
3-game losing streakBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comHawaii guard Carl English obliged national magazine writers in town to write feature stories about him by scoring 30 points to lead the Rainbows to an 85-70 win over Rice last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
After struggling on the road last week, Hawaii snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 12-5 overall and 5-4 in the Western Athletic Conference heading into tomorrow's game with Tulsa. The Rainbows have won their last 23 home games and their last four meetings with Rice (12-6, 4-4).
"High energy, they were a great team, but we answered back," English said. "It was a great overall effort."
A crowd of 4,829 watched English match his season high and become the 10th Hawaii player to score 1,000 points. He led five Rainbows in double figures as Hawaii shot 55 percent from the field and made 20 of 27 free-throw attempts. Hawaii also controlled the boards, grabbing 39 rebounds to Rice's 28.
"It's a great accomplishment, I guess," English said of his milestone. "That's what I do, I score. I take pride in that and I try to help the team whatever way I can."
Hawaii forward Phil Martin and center Haim Shimonovich registered double digits in points and rebounds. Martin finished with 13 points, while Shimonovich had 10. Both of them grabbed 11 rebounds.
"We were shooting the ball pretty well and our big guys were the difference," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "When we have an inside game to go with our outside game we're pretty tough."
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Carl English made this layup on his way to a 30-point night. He finished the game with 1,000 points in his UH career.
Rice guard Omar-Seli Mance led the Owls with 20 points and forward Michael Harris added 17. But the Rainbows held the Owls, who entered the game with the WAC's highest-scoring offense, eight points under their average.
"I thought Hawaii did a good job of executing their game plan and I was disappointed in the way we executed our game plan," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "We got exposed on the boards, we got exposed in transition and we got exposed on defense."
Hawaii turned the tables on a speedy Rice squad by turning up the tempo of the game and scoring on fast breaks.
"(Wallace) told us if we just run our offense we're not going to win this game, we had to get some transition baskets," English said. "We got out running and we got some easy baskets and that changed the pace of the game."
Three Hawaii players were in double figures by halftime as the Rainbows matched their highest first-half point total of the season to take a 50-37 lead into the locker room.
Writers from Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine are in town to get a first-hand look at English and the junior didn't disappoint.
English made six of seven attempts from the field to lead a Rainbow offense that shot 57 percent in the first half. Shimonovich, invisible for much of the past road trip, made his presence felt on both ends of the court and posted 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half.
Both teams came out of the chutes smoking in combining to hit nine of the first 12 field goals attempted in the game.
Hawaii took control with a 13-0 run and claimed a 32-21 lead on a layup by English off a feed from Nkeruwem Akpan. Rice responded to cut its deficit to four at 33-29 with six minutes left in the half.
But the Rainbows bolted ahead with another 13-0 spurt as Shimonovich found Michael Kuebler for a layup to give Hawaii its biggest lead of the half at 46-29 at the 2:33 mark.
The Rainbows maintained a controlling lead early in the second half and opened up a 63-48 advantage when Martin soared for a one-handed rebound and jam.
Rice managed to hang around got back to within six at 68-62 with 5:12 left in the game. But a layup by Kuebler and English's third 3-pointer of the night pushed the Hawaii lead back to 11.
Kuebler finished with 18 points and Akpan came on late in the game to score 10 points.
The Rainbows now face a Tulsa team reeling from a 58-57 loss at San Jose State yesterday.
"It's a big step," said Martin, who also matched a career high with four assists. "We want to keep winning at home, keep our winning streak going. We have to hold on to this energy we have right now. It was a real good win."
WAC standings
Yesterday
WAC games Overall W L Pct. W L Fresno St. 8 1 .889 15 3 Nevada 5 3 .625 10 8 SMU 5 3 .625 10 8 Hawaii 5 4 .571 12 5 Rice 4 4 .500 12 6 Tulsa 4 4 .500 11 6 Boise St. 3 5 .375 9 9 Louisiana Tech 3 5 .375 6 9 San Jose St. 2 6 .250 5 12 UTEP 2 6 .250 4 13
Louisiana Tech 79, Boise St. 76
SMU 80, UTEP 56
San Jose St. 58, Tulsa 57
Hawaii 85, Rice 70
Hawaii 85, Rice 70
RICE (12-6, 4-4 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Mance 8 17 1 2 37 2 3 20 Evans 0 1 1 2 20 3 1 1 Smith 2 4 0 0 24 2 3 4 McKrieth 4 10 0 0 30 3 1 10 Diene 2 5 5 6 29 11 1 9 Gillespie 2 8 0 0 13 0 1 5 Kollik 1 1 0 0 6 0 0 2 Harrison 0 2 0 0 9 1 0 0 Moore 1 2 0 0 7 0 0 2 Harris 7 12 2 2 25 5 0 17 Team 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 27 62 9 12 200 27 10 70
WARRIORS (12-5, 5-4 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 5 10 3 5 31 11 4 13 Shimanovich 5 9 0 0 31 11 2 10 Campbell 0 1 2 3 23 1 3 2 English 9 12 9 11 35 3 0 30 Kubler 6 11 4 6 38 5 4 18 Alama-Francis 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Zivanovic 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Carter 1 5 0 0 17 4 2 2 Peciukas 0 0 0 0 5 0 2 0 Holliday 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Akpan 4 7 2 2 17 1 1 10 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 30 55 20 27 200 36 18 85
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, Rice 37.
3-point goals--Hawaii 5-14 (English 3-4, Kuebler 2-7, Carter 0-2, Akpan 0-1), Rice 7-16 (Mance 3-7, Smith 0-1, McKrieth 2-4, Gillespie 1-1, Harris 1-3). Personal fouls--Hawaii 15, Rice 20. Technical fouls--None. Steals--Hawaii 4 (Shimonovic 2, Akpan, Alama-Francis); Rice 4 (Mance 2, McKrieth 2). Blocked shots--Hawaii 5 (Martin 2, Shimonovic 2, Kuebler); Rice 2 (Diene, Harris). Turnovers--Hawaii 11 (Shimonovic 3, Martin 2, Akpan 2, Kuebler 2, Campbell, Carter); Rice 11 (Gillespie 3, Smith 2, Moore 2, Mance, Harris, McKrieth, Harrison). Officials--N/A. A--6,457.
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