ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tulsa's Jarius Glenn blocked a shot by Hawaii's Vaidotas Peciukas during the first half yesterday in Tulsa, Okla.
Rainbows eliminated TULSA, Okla. >> Hawaii's two-year reign as Western Athletic Conference basketball champion ended yesterday as Tulsa defended its home court, refusing to allow the Rainbow Warriors to celebrate for a third straight year.
Tulsa finally ends Hawaii’s
WAC tournament reign
to advance to finalBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe top-seeded Golden Hurricane eliminated fifth-seeded Hawaii from the WAC tournament with a 66-56 semifinal victory at the Donald W. Reynolds Center thanks to a powerful post game and deadly free-throw shooting.
Hawaii defeated Tulsa at the Reynolds Center in the two WAC tournament championship games the last two years, but fell short in its bid for an unprecedented third consecutive title.
"I felt this was the best Tulsa team of the three," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "They really came together and started playing tough defense and looking for the right guys to score."
Tulsa (21-9) is the first team to play in four consecutive WAC tournament finals, and will attempt to claim the championship when it faces Nevada, an 81-66 winner over SMU, today at 4 p.m. Hawaii time. The winner earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
Hawaii (18-11) must now hope for a bid to the National Invitation Tournament to extend its season. The NIT field will be announced tomorrow.
"If the league fights for us, we'll have it," Wallace said. "There's four (WAC) teams that deserve to go and they should be in there.
"Our goal would be to go and win the NIT. Just to go to the NIT is not what you want."
The Golden Hurricane snapped the Rainbows' seven-game winning streak in tourney play as Kevin Johnson scored 15 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. The Golden Hurricane also made 30 of 33 free throws to account for 45 percent of their points.
Johnson was 0-for-5 from the field in the first half, but hit six of nine shots after halftime.
"Coach has confidence in me, my teammates have confidence and they kept giving me the ball," Johnson said. "You just have to keep taking the shots that they're giving you and they started falling in the second half."
Forward Charlie Davis added eight points and 13 rebounds. Guard Jason Parker scored eight of his 12 points from the line.
Hawaii guard Carl English battled through foul trouble to tie his career high with 33 points, 27 coming in the second half. He drained six 3-pointers in the half as the Rainbows tried to muster a late rally.
"It doesn't matter what I score, it matters if we win or lose," English said. "Tonight we lost, so it doesn't mean anything."
Forward Phil Martin contributed 13 points, but nobody else on the team could manage more than five against the WAC's top-rated defense.
"We're an offensive player away from being really good," Wallace said. "We've got some young guys who will be better next year, but for this year it was a learning experience for them and we just didn't have the same firepower we had a year ago."
Both teams endured a rough shooting night, as Hawaii made 37.1 percent of its shots from the field and Tulsa was only slightly better at 37.5 percent. But the Hurricane's defense stymied the Rainbows' comeback attempts.
"Neither team shot the ball exceptionally well, especially Tulsa, but the defense was very fierce and I was really pleased with the way we played," Tulsa coach John Phillips said. "I was really happy that we didn't get frustrated because we were missing easy shots and not play defense. We increased our intensity."
The Rainbows declined to comment on the disparity in free-throw attempts.
"The bottom line is we lost, the officiating doesn't control the game; we control the tempo and what goes on," English said. "They might make some calls here or there but you have to suck it up."
Said Phillips: "We made a concentrated effort to get the ball inside, so it doesn't surprise me that the stat looks that way."
It appeared the Rainbows would be in for a long night when English was whistled for his second personal foul just two minutes into the game, eliciting a roar from a Reynolds Center crowd of 6,134.
With English on the bench, Tulsa took the lead at 9-7 on a layup by Dante Swanson. But the Hurricane couldn't pull away and English returned with 10 minutes left in the half and Tulsa leading 11-9.
Tulsa closed the half with an 8-0 run to send UH into the locker room trailing 27-17.
The Hurricane maintained a controlling lead early in the second half and opened up a 12-point cushion on a layup by Johnson. But Hawaii went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to four at 46-42 with six minutes left.
But Johnson scored on a short jumper and made two free throws to spark a 12-2 Tulsa run. His dunk with 2:37 left put Tulsa up 56-45 and effectively slammed the door on the Rainbows.
"We cut it to four and they went right to Johnson," Wallace said. "He showed what a great player he is. ... I thought he did a heck of a job to answer our runs."
English, who scored seven points in Hawaii's last game with Tulsa, continued to battle, scoring nine points in the final two minutes. But Tulsa hit eight of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal it.
"I thought Jarius (Glenn) and Dante did a really good job on English, he just showed how good a player he was," Phillips said. He was hitting some shots that were not guardable. I could tell he did not have the flu this time."
RAINBOWS (18-11, 9-9 WAC) Tulsa 66, Hawaii 56
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Martin 6 14 1 2 37 5 1 13 Akpan 1 4 0 0 30 7 0 2 Campbell 1 7 0 0 39 2 5 2 English 13 22 1 3 29 4 0 33 Kuebler 2 8 1 2 33 4 1 5 Takaki 0 0 0 0 0+ 0 0 0 Alama-Francis 0 0 0 0 0+ 0 0 0 Zivanovic 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Shimonovich 0 2 0 0 12 2 1 0 Peciukas 0 5 1 2 18 4 2 1 Holliday 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 Team 2 Totals 23 62 4 9 200 32 11 56 GOLDEN HURRICANE (21-9, 12-6 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Davis 3 6 2 2 29 13 5 8 Johnson 6 13 8 9 33 5 2 20 Swanson 2 8 8 8 37 7 2 12 Glenn 2 6 0 0 34 5 0 4 Parker 2 8 8 10 37 3 4 12 Wallace 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 Collins 0 2 2 2 8 1 1 2 Ledoux 1 2 2 2 8 1 0 4 Price 2 3 0 0 10 3 0 4 Team 3 Totals 18 48 30 33 200 41 14 66 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 -- Tulsa 27, Hawaii 17.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 6-20 (English 6-10, Campbell 0-4, Kuebler 0-4, Peciukas 0-2); Tulsa 0-6 (Johnson 0-2, Swanson 0-2, Parker 0-1, Collins 0-1).
Personal fouls -- Hawaii 23; Tulsa 13.
Steals -- Hawaii 7 (Kuebler 3, Martin, Akpan, Campbell, Shimonivich); Tulsa 7 (Swanson 2, Parker 2, Glenn, Price, Ledoux).
Blocked shots -- Hawaii 3 (Akpan 2, Kuebler); Tulsa 6 (Johnson 3, Glenn, Wallace, Price).
Turnovers -- Hawaii 13 (Martin 4, Akpan 3, English 3, Kuebler, Shimonovich, Peciukas); Tulsa 15 (Johnson 5, Swanson 4, Collins 2, Glenn, Parker, Wallace, Ledoux).
Officials -- Bob Sitov, Ruben Ramos, Lonnie Dixon.
A -- 6,134.
UH Athletics
