ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Vaidotas Peciukas pulled up for a shot over Santa Clara's Scott Dougherty in the first half of last night's opening-round game of the Maui Invitational.
Hawaii to face
neighbor ChaminadeThe Rainbows beat Santa Clara
to set up a showdown with
the Division II Silverswords
LAHAINA >> Although only a short stretch of Waialae Avenue separates their campuses, Hawaii and Chaminade have met on the basketball court just twice in their history.
And neither of those meetings carried the weight of their showdown today.
A national television audience will get a double dose of Hawaii college basketball when the two local entrants in the EA Sports Maui Invitational meet in the semifinals today at the Lahaina Civic Center.
Hours after Chaminade upset Villanova in the opening game of the 20th annual tournament yesterday morning, Hawaii joined the Silverswords in the semifinals by beating Santa Clara 56-43 in the nightcap.
"It's just another basketball game as far as we're concerned and we have to go out and play," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "Of course, it does mean more to beat the guy next door than it would be somebody from New York."
The game is set to tip off at 5 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN2. Dayton plays San Diego State in the first semifinal at 2 p.m. on ESPN.
Santa Clara fell into the consolation round and plays Villanova at 11 a.m. Ohio State faces Central Michigan at 9.
The wins by the local teams guaranteed that the state will be represented in the tournament final for the first time since the inaugural event in 1984, when Chaminade lost to Providence in the championship game of the four-team tournament. The event was expanded to eight teams two years later.
The schools split their two previous meetings, with Chaminade winning the last game 56-47 on Dec. 17, 1982.
"I know it'll be something you guys in the press will love," Wallace told reporters. "It's a dream to have them a mile away, a Cinderella playing big brother next door.
"We just have to prepare for them just like any other team and not get overly emotional ... and come out to play, because you know they're going to play. They're well coached, they executed when they had to and I was impressed with them. So there's no taking them lightly. Our guys aren't taking them lightly and I'm sure they won't take us lightly."
Chaminade snapped a 30-game Maui Invitational losing streak by winning its first tournament game since 1992 and will make their first appearance in the semifinals since 1991.
After struggling from long range in a season-opening loss to UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Hawaii (1-1) found its range in the second half of last night's game to avoid its first 0-2 start since the 1993-94 season.
The Rainbows hit six of eight 3-pointers in the second half to pull away from the Broncos after falling behind 12-0 to open the game.
"I think we knew all we needed to do was calm down and get the ball in the basket," UH guard Michael Kuebler said. "We might have came out a little anxious or nervous, but once that passed we were able to turn up our defensive intensity and kind of relax and hit some shots."
But the key was the play of UH center Haim Shimonovich, who came off the bench to spark the Rainbows with nine points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
"He really pumped some energy into the ballclub, when he goes gets some loose ball, blocks shots and he's right in the middle of the defense," Wallace said. "Everybody picked it up because they're a close team and when he picked it up they all followed him."
It looked like thoughts of an all-Hawaii semifinal might evaporate early in last night's game as Santa Clara scored the game's first 12 points.
Vaidotas Peciukas, who made his first start since the third game of last season, and Shimonovich then led UH to a 9-0 run as Santa Clara cooled off and went nearly seven minutes without scoring.
"I thought the defense tightened up when Haim was in there," Wallace said. "He blocked up the middle with some intimidation down inside and it's tough to move 280 pounds when he gets it all charged up."
Shimonovich came off the bench early in half and scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds in 14 minutes of play. He tied the game at 17 with a free throw and Peciukas knocked down two more charity shots to give Hawaii its first lead with 2:10 left in the half.
A turnaround jumper by Julian Sensley gave UH a 21-18 lead at halftime.
The Rainbows heated up from outside in the second half as they hit five 3-pointers in a little more than 10 minutes, and opened up a 43-35 advantage when Logan Lee drained a trey.
Santa Clara (0-1) never got within nine points the rest of the way.
"Hawaii did a great job, they really executed, played with a lot of confidence after the first four or five minutes and I give them credit," Santa Clara coach Dick Davey said.
