RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM UH's Nkeruwem Akpan defended SJSU's Antonio Lawrence on Saturday. The 'Bows will try to rebound tomorrow.

UH looks to
bounce back

Hawaii, which has lost six
of eight, will try to start a
new home winning streak

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

Statistically speaking, Hawaii and Nevada rate among the top rebounding teams in the Western Athletic Conference, and both will need to bounce back in a big way tomorrow night.

Nevada at Hawaii When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Where: Stan Sheriff Center TV: Live, KFVE-TV Radio: Live, 1420-AM Internet: uhathletics.hawaii.edu Tickets: Lower Level, $15/$16; Upper Level (adult) $11/$12; Upper Level (student, UH) $7; Super Rooter $8

The Rainbows take on the Wolf Pack at the Stan Sheriff Center with the shock of Saturday's 55-54 loss to San Jose State still lingering in the arena.

Hawaii's basketball team (13-8 overall, 6-7 WAC) tried to cool the sting of its first defeat at home in 14 months with a brisk workout yesterday, and UH coach Riley Wallace was pleased with the Rainbows' ability to leave the loss behind.

"Just like I said they would, they came back and had a good practice," Wallace said.

The Rainbows face a Nevada team also smarting from a heartbreaking loss. The Wolf Pack dropped a 99-97 decision to Louisiana Tech in overtime. Nevada had a chance to tie the game, but Terrance Green, who finished with 31 points, missed two free throws with 2.5 seconds left.

Still, the Wolf Pack (14-9, 9-4) enter the game second in the WAC standings and beat the Rainbows 73-65 Jan. 25 in Reno.

Nevada is first in the league in scoring offense, averaging 76.4 points per game, and in rebounding with 39.1 boards per outing. Hawaii is second in the conference in rebounding margin, grabbing 4.3 more boards per game than its opponents.

After seeing his team struggle against San Jose State's deliberate half-court game, Wallace is preparing the Rainbows for a faster-paced Wolf Pack attack.

"They're very athletic, they can take you one-on-one and whip you. So the things that cause us problems, they do," he said. "They'll want to get up and down and go, so we'll have to be ready."

Sophomore guard Kirk Snyder leads Nevada with 15.4 points and eight rebounds per game, while Greene averages 13.1 points coming off the bench. Todd Okeson leads the conference in 3-point shooting at 51 percent (49-for-97).

UH guard Carl English is now tied for the WAC scoring lead at 20 points per game after being held to nine against SJSU. He scored 27 in UH's first meeting with Nevada.

The Rainbows have five WAC contests and Saturday's Bracket Busters game at Kent State to get things straightened out before attempting to be the first team to win three consecutive WAC tournament titles.

By dropping six of their last eight games and their last three in a row, the Rainbows have backpedaled into seventh place in the WAC standings. If the season ended this week, the two-time defending conference champions would face a play-in game just to get into the quarterfinals of the WAC tournament.

"We know what scenarios are out there right now," Wallace said. "We've put ourselves in a position where you have to win the tournament so you have to improve every night out."

Bracket Buster next: The Rainbows will have their bags packed for an 11-day road trip following tomorrow's game.

The team heads to the airport shortly after the game and travels to Ohio for Saturday's Bracket Busters meeting with Kent State of the Mid-American Conference.

The Rainbows will stay on the mainland following the Kent State game for WAC encounters at Tulsa and Rice next week.

Felton nets WAC honor: Lavelle Felton is the second Louisiana Tech player in as many weeks to be named WAC Player of the Week.

Felton made 72.7 percent of his field-goal attempts and averaged 20.3 points as the Bulldogs swept three conference games last week, including road wins at Fresno State and Nevada. Bulldog forward Antonio Meeking won last week's award.

The Bulldogs are the conference's hottest team, winning seven in a row to vault into third place in the WAC at 9-5 (12-9 overall).

WAC standings Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Fresno St. 11 3 .786 18 5 Nevada 9 4 .692 14 9 LaTech 9 5 .643 12 9 Rice 7 5 .583 15 7 Tulsa 7 6 .538 14 8 SMU 7 6 .538 12 11 Hawaii 6 7 .462 13 8 Boise St. 4 9 .308 10 13 San Jose St. 3 9 .250 6 15 UTEP 2 11 .154 4 18 Today Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at UTEP (nonconference game) Tomorrow Tulsa at SMU Fresno State at San Jose State Nevada at Hawaii Thursday Rice at Louisiana Tech Saturday Rice at SMU Nevada at San Jose State UTEP at Boise State

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UH Athletics