HAWAII 68, CHAMINADE 54
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Phil Martin, left, was fouled by Chaminade's Dustin Mittelsteadt on a first-half field-goal attempt during the Rainbows' 68-54 semifinal victory over the Silverswords last night at the Maui Invitational in Lahaina.
’Bows win
island battleUH beats Chaminade
and will play Dayton
for the tournament title
LAHAINA >> After maintaining its grip on hometown bragging rights last night, the Hawaii basketball team will try to secure the EA Sports Maui Invitational title this afternoon.
The Rainbow Warriors (2-1) advanced to the tournament championship game with a 68-54 win over Chaminade last night at the Lahaina Civic Center and face defending Atlantic 10 champion Dayton in today's finals.
"It's a good win for us, we can still live on the island," UH coach Riley Wallace said, after his team emerged victorious from its first meeting with Chaminade since 1982.
Hawaii is the first local team to play for the tournament championship since the inaugural event in 1984.
The championship game tips off at 4:30 p.m. Chaminade (1-1) faces San Diego State in the third-place game at 11:30 a.m. Both the championship and third-place games will be televised on ESPN2.
Dayton (3-0), which finished third in the 2000 Maui Invitational, earned a spot in the championship game with a 76-71 victory over San Diego State in yesterday's first semifinal.
Dayton will be listed officially as the home team for today's game and although the Flyers are facing the home-state team, the Civic Center won't necessarily be a hostile environment.
"It'll be a battle for the home court because we have a lot of fans here and that's great," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said of the Flyers' boisterous following from the Midwest.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chaminade's Zack Whiting (25) and Sam Henning (center) battled Michael Kuebler for a rebound.
"It's going to be a big test, it really is, and when you have an opportunity you have to figure out a way to seize that opportunity."
The Flyers have four starters back from last year's 24-6 team and will test the Rainbows in the paint and on the perimeter.
Dayton can beat teams with its size thanks to 7-foot center Sean Finn and 6-8 forward Keith Waleskowski. Or the Flyers can stretch defenses with the outside shooting of guards Ramod Marshall, Mark Jones and Warren Williams.
"We have our work cut out, and I think our guys will be ready to go," Wallace said. "They've got good quickness, good size. We're going to have to execute to perfection and play good solid defense."
The Rainbows' defense has allowed the offense time to get warmed up in both of their tournament games. After holding Santa Clara to 32 percent shooting on Monday, UH limited Chaminade to 36 percent last night.
"The only thing that really hurt us was their quickness. ... But I was very, very pleased with our defense tonight," Wallace said. "We've been pretty good the last two nights of contesting all shots."
Chaminade, fresh off Monday's stunning upset of Villanova, stayed with UH for the entire first half and took a 30-28 lead early in the second. But Hawaii exploded for a 24-2 run to give the Rainbows a 52-32 lead with 10:07 left.
UH guard Michael Kuebler matched his career high with 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field. He drained three 3-pointers and had 14 points in the Rainbows' decisive run.
"We ran a couple more plays reserved for the shooters," Kuebler said. "We ran some other plays and opened me up a little bit."
The Rainbows also controlled the inside, outscoring Chaminade 42-28 in the paint and grabbing 41 rebounds to the Silverswords' 31. Center Haim Shimonovich came off the bench to record his eighth career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
"I thought their big bodies took over," Chaminade coach Aaron Griess said. "Haim hurt us inside quite a bit in the first half. We tried to attack him and he was just too big."
After the emotional victory on Monday, the Silverswords couldn't maintain their edge once Hawaii started pulling away yesterday.
Griess said the Silverswords got away from the game plan of trying to get the UH big men into foul trouble by attacking the Rainbows inside, and instead settled for long-range jumpers. The Silverswords made just five of 21 3-point attempts.
"I thought our guys came out and played hard, but we didn't concentrate," Griess said. "When we got down we kind of lost our composure and got out of our game plan and that cost us big."
Dayton 76, San Diego State 71: Marshall led the Flyers with 17 points and Warren Williams was 4-for-6 beyond the 3-point line and scored 15 points in the win over the Aztecs (2-1).
San Diego State's Aerick Sanders had 21 points and was one rebound short of the tournament record with 18 boards.
Consolation bracket
Ohio State 77, Central Michigan 71: Terence Dials and Velimir Radinovic scored 14 points each and Ricardo Billings added 13 as the Buckeyes (1-2) advanced to the fifth-place game. Gerrit Brigitha paced the Chippewas (0-2).
Villanova 53, Santa Clara 51, OT: Curtis Sumpter hit two free throws with two seconds left in overtime to send the Wildcats (3-1) to a win over the Broncos (0-2). Villanova's Randy Foye led all scorers with 17 points, while Sumpter scored 16.
Hawaii 68, Chaminade 54
HAWAII (2-1)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 2 8 1 1 20 4 2 5 Sensley 2 7 2 5 33 7 5 6 Carter 0 1 0 0 18 0 2 0 Peciukas 4 7 2 4 27 4 2 10 Kuebler 12 19 1 1 38 2 2 29 Sottos 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Zivanovic 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 Shimonovich 7 10 0 0 22 11 2 14 Lee 0 1 0 0 22 3 6 0 Nash 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Blackett 1 3 0 0 11 3 0 2 Jesinskis 1 1 0 1 3 0 0 2 Totals 29 57 6 12 200 41 21 68
CHAMINADE (1-1)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Henning 5 8 2 3 30 9 1 12 Frey 2 4 1 2 23 2 1 5 Sykes 2 8 2 2 27 2 1 8 Reyes 1 12 0 0 26 3 0 2 Stigall III 5 13 0 1 32 4 1 12 Mittelsteadt 2 3 0 0 17 2 1 4 Acker 1 3 0 0 4 0 0 2 Makupson 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 Walters 1 2 1 2 12 1 0 4 Whiting 0 0 4 6 19 4 1 4 Metcalf 0 0 1 2 8 0 0 1 Totals 19 53 11 18 200 31 6 54
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-Hawaii 26, Chaminade 25.
3-point goals--Hawaii 4-10 (Kuebler 4), Chaminade 5-21 (Sykes 2, Stigall III 2, Walters). Personal fouls--Hawaii 18, Chaminade 17. Steals--Hawaii 5 (Kuebler 2, Martin, Peciukas, Shimonovich), Chaminade 3 (Sykes 2, Whiting). Blocked shots--Hawaii 1 (Sensley), Chaminade 1 (Whiting). Turnovers--Hawaii 14 (Carter 4, Shimonovich 4, Martin 2, Blackett 2, Sensley, Peciukas), Chaminade 13 (Henning 3, Frey 2, Stigal III 2, Walters 2, Reyes, Mittelsteadt, Whiting, Metcalf).
Attendance--2,500.
