’Bows take The Hawaii basketball team is beyond the point of trying gimmicks to break its negative mojo on the road this season.
to the road with
some momentum
After a successful homestand,
Hawaii looks to improve
on its 1-5 away recordBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe Rainbows, nearly invincible at home for the better part of two campaigns, are 1-5 away from the Stan Sheriff Center entering this week's games at Louisiana Tech and Southern Methodist. But UH coach Riley Wallace hasn't resorted to shaking up the team's routine in hopes of extracting a win on the road.
"There's not much else you can do," Wallace said. "You have to practice, you have to have study hall. We take them to the mall or whatever, eat at Golden Corral, we'll do the same thing."
The Rainbows' trek for tomorrow's game at Louisiana Tech began Sunday night with an eight-hour flight direct to Houston.
After a short hop up to Dallas, the Rainbows boarded a third plane to fly into Shreveport, La., and drove another hour to arrive in Ruston early Monday afternoon.
After the Louisiana Tech game, the Rainbows head back to Dallas for a game Saturday at SMU's Moody Coliseum.
Wallace took advantage of the down time between flights to review the Rainbows' 57-53 win over the Bulldogs on Jan. 11.
In that game, the Rainbows struggled shooting the ball and Louisiana Tech slowed the game down to a pace the Bulldogs preferred to keep the game tight throughout. Only when Hawaii center Haim Shimonovich scored with six seconds left could the Rainbows breathe easy.
Forward Phil Martin scored 14 points in the first half to pace Hawaii early, and guard Carl English came on late to finish with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Louisiana Tech's loss to Hawaii sent the Bulldogs on a five-game losing streak, which they finally broke with home wins over Boise State (79-76) and UTEP (73-57) last week.
"It really was two big wins for our team," Louisiana Tech coach Keith Richard said. "We, like so many teams in the league, have been involved in numerous close games and we have fallen on the short end of the stick.
"(The Boise State win) was very good for us just mindset-wise, ending up on the winning end of a close game. Our basketball team really needed it."
Shimonovich, Martin and reserve forward Nkeruwem Akpan will need to play strong defense in the paint in tomorrow's game, as the Rainbows try to contain Bulldogs forward Antonio Meeking.
Meeking powered his way to 23 points and 12 rebounds against the Rainbows and leads Louisiana Tech with 18.6 points and 8.2 boards a game.
Hawaii will also need its big men to perform offensively. Shimonovich averages 9.1 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, but his scoring output dips to 3.8 points a game in the Rainbows' six road matchups this season.
"When (Shimonovich and Martin) play well we're tough," Wallace said.
"We have to have our inside game, because our guards have been consistent."
English, the reigning WAC player of the week, continues to lead the conference in scoring at 20.9 points per game. Michael Kuebler is second on the team with 12.6 points.
Just as they did in mid-January, the Rainbows embarked on their road trip on a high following another rousing homestand. Hawaii is hoping to carry the momentum of last Saturday's overtime win over Tulsa into this week's games.
But the Rainbows know how quickly the bubble can burst after going 0-3 on their previous trip.
Despite dropping close games to Fresno State and Nevada at the tail end of that swing, Wallace said the team may have made some progress in exorcising their road demons with strong efforts in those games.
"The road is different and it's hard to predict," he said.
"We were ready to play at Fresno," Wallace added. "We played them right to the wire and should have beaten them, one rebound away. We have to play that way these two games."
Short shots: The series is tied 2-2 with the teams defending their home floor in the last three meetings. Louisiana Tech won last year's meeting in Ruston 57-53. ... Hawaii is averaging 60.5 points and is shooting 40.5 percent from the field in its six road games. The Rainbows average 79.2 points at home while shooting 49.6 percent.
UH Athletics
