ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tulsa's Seneca Collins put up a shot over Hawaii's Haim Shimonovich yesterday in Tulsa, Okla. Tulsa won 76-51. Shimonovich left the game in the first half after hurting his ankle, and he will be X-rayed today, according to Rainbow coach Riley Wallace.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Kevin Johnson got the scoring opportunities he's been lacking lately, and he made them count. Tulsa beats Hawaii by 25
By Clayton Bellamy
Associated PressJohnson scored 19 points and Jason Parker and Dante Swanson added 15 points apiece as Tulsa snapped a five-game losing streak against Hawaii with a 76-51 win Thursday night.
"Coach has stressed getting Johnson the ball more," Swanson said. "He's a great scorer and sometimes we forget that. We don't get the ball in and have a tendency to stay on the perimeter and shoot."
Johnson scored seven points in a 10-2 run just after halftime that the Golden Hurricane (16-9, 9-6 Western Athletic Conference) used to pull ahead 41-23 and put Hawaii away.
Usually undersized Tulsa outrebounded the Rainbow Warriors 43-33, dominating after Hawaii (15-9, 7-8) center Haim Shimonovich left the game halfway through the first half with a sprained right ankle.
"Our rebounding tonight was probably as good as it's been," said Tulsa coach John Phillips. "It's definitely something we've harped upon but for whatever reason we haven't been very good at it."
Carl English, the WAC's leading scorer coming in with a 20.4 average, was held to just 7 points on 3-of-9 shooting for Hawaii, which was halfway through its second 11-day trip to the mainland this season.
"A lot of our guys were under the weather," said Hawaii guard Mark Campbell. "But that's no excuse. They forced us into how we played."
Phil Martin's 12 points led the Rainbow Warriors, who dropped their seventh straight conference road game. Hawaii, which came in tied for the conference lead in field goal percentage, shot just 38 percent.
"I just thought our defense played well the whole ballgame," Phillips said. "There weren't any positions that I felt that we just broke down."
Tulsa came out after halftime on fire. Johnson and Parker hit 3-pointers in the decisive early run, and, later, Swanson's 3 and layup after a steal put the Golden Hurricane ahead 59-34 with 8:23 remaining.
Tulsa led 31-21 at halftime. Jarius Glenn scored four of his nine first-half points on two putbacks in a 13-3 run that put the Golden Hurricane ahead 27-19 with 4:05 left.
Tulsa led just 14-13 when Shimonovich fell to floor after grabbing a rebound. He had two points, two rebounds and two blocks before leaving the game, and Johnson was ineffective while Shimonovich was guarding him.
"It was really tough when Haim went down," Campbell said. "He's our offensive threat inside...We just became a perimeter team and couldn't get the ball inside, and then the tide started to turn."
WAC Standings
WAC GAMES OVERALL W L PCT. W L Fresno St. 12 3 .800 19 6 Nevada 10 5 .667 15 10 Rice 9 6 .600 17 8 Tulsa 9 6 .600 16 9 SMU 9 7 .563 14 12 Louisiana Tech 9 7 .563 12 12 HAWAII 7 8 .467 15 9 Boise St. 5 10 .333 11 14 San Jose St. 3 12 .200 6 18 UTEP 3 12 .200 5 20 YESTERDAY
SMU 66, Boise St. 58
Rice 65, San Jose St. 52
UTEP 75, Louisiana Tech 57
Tulsa 76, HAWAII 51
Tulsa 76, Hawaii 51
WARRIORS (15-9, 7-8, WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Martin 6 16 0 1 34 7 1 12 English 3 9 0 0 29 4 1 7 Shimonovich 1 1 0 0 10 3 0 2 Campbell 2 5 0 0 37 3 9 5 Keubler 3 7 3 4 26 0 0 10 Alama-Francis 0 0 0 3 3 2 0 0 Zivanovic 1 1 0 0 9 2 1 2 Carter 0 5 1 2 15 1 1 1 Peciukas 1 1 1 2 8 1 0 3 Holliday 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 Akpan 3 8 2 4 27 6 0 9 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 20 53 7 16 200 33 14 51 GOLDEN HURRICANE (16-9, 9-6 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Davis 1 2 0 1 23 8 0 2 Johnson 7 18 2 2 28 7 0 19 Swanson 6 15 0 0 31 4 2 15 Glenn 4 6 0 0 26 7 2 9 Parker 6 10 2 2 31 4 4 15 Wallace 0 1 0 0 12 0 2 0 Meier 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 7 Collins 0 3 0 0 16 2 1 0 Ledoux 3 5 0 0 14 1 0 6 Keita 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 1 Price 1 3 0 0 14 4 0 2 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 30 65 7 9 200 43 11 76
UH Athletics
