DAYTON 82, HAWAII 72
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dayton's Keith Waleskowski slammed the ball over Hawaii's Haim Shimonovich, left, and Logan Lee last night.
Flyers soar to title
LAHAINA >> The Hawaii basketball team returns to Manoa today bettered by the lessons that come with playing in one of the nation's top early-season tournaments.
But it's Dayton that will head home with a championship trophy.
The Flyers claimed the title of the 20th EA Sports Maui Invitational with an 82-72 victory over the Rainbow Warriors yesterday before a lively crowd of 2,500 at the Lahaina Civic Center.
The Flyers, the defending Atlantic 10 champions, rallied from an eight-point deficit at halftime to deny Hawaii the crown in the Rainbows' first appearance on Maui.
"I'm feeling unbelievable right now after playing the way we did in the second half against a Hawaii team that is very good right now and I think before the end of the year is going to be an exceptional team," said first-year Dayton coach Brian Gregory, whose team improved to 4-0 with the win.
Dayton guard Ramod Marshall scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, while forward Keith Waleskowski and center Sean Finn combined for 25 points after halftime.
Finn finished with 18 points and Waleskowski, the tournament MVP, had 17 points. The duo combined to make 15 of 21 shots from the field in the game.
The seniors helped Dayton to a third-place finish as freshmen in the 2000 tournament and were instrumental in the Flyers' comeback yesterday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dayton players, from left to right, Greg Kohls, Ramod Marshall, Warren Williams, Frank Iguodala and Keith Waleskowski celebrated their Maui Invitational title.
"The three seniors really took the game over in the last 12 minutes and made big play after big play just as much on the defensive end as on the offensive end," Gregory said.
Hawaii guard Michael Kuebler followed a 29-point performance against Chaminade in the semifinals on Tuesday with 23 points yesterday. Forward Phil Martin broke out of a slump to score 14 points, and center Haim Shimonovich again gave UH a spark off the bench with 13 points.
But the Rainbows couldn't stop a 14-2 run in the second half as Dayton turned a 48-41 deficit into a 55-50 lead with 7:35 left in the game and pulled away from there.
"We definitely wanted to see our name up there on the wall with the past champions -- that's something we could look back on our entire lives," Kuebler said. "Still this will be a good memory and a good experience. When we're watching it on TV when we're older we can say we played in that."
After watching Hawaii's flex-motion offense have its way in the first half, Dayton switched to a 3-2 zone midway through the second half. The change disrupted Hawaii's flow on the offensive end and sent the Flyers on their decisive run.
"I think the zone had a big factor in it," Gregory said. "They were in a great rhythm offensively and we had to do some different things. The adjustments we made in our man-to-man helped us and when we went zone it got us in a rhythm and got them out of rhythm."
UH coach Riley Wallace agreed that the Flyers' defensive switch turned the momentum of the game.
"He changed defenses because we were making them move in our flex-motion offense and getting some decent looks off penetration," Wallace said. "But they switched to the zone and that was the difference in the ball game."
Said Kuebler: "We didn't handle it the way we should have. We put up the shots a little too fast and we should have made them work a little harder than we did."
The Dayton big men also went to work in the second half, as the Flyers outrebounded Hawaii 33-24. Dayton had 20 second-chance points thanks to 15 offensive rebounds.
Hawaii's defensive tenacity allowed the Rainbows to take a 33-25 lead into halftime. Dayton turned the ball over 11 times in the first 20 minutes, which UH converted into 13 points.
Hawaii maintained the advantage until Dayton went on its second-half charge. Waleskowski broke a 50-50 tie with a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 8:35 left. He then found Finn for an alley-oop and got the Flyers' fans jumping with a dunk of his own.
The Flyers blistered the Rainbows inside and outside to establish control of the game. Marshall and Warren Williams hit 3-pointers. Finn later scored on a putback, and floated in a hook shot over Shimonovich to give Dayton a 67-59 lead with 4:16 left.
The Rainbows would get no closer as Marshall scored nine points in the final three minutes to snuff Hawaii's comeback hopes.
All-Tournament team: Aerick Sanders, San Diego State; Ramod Marshall, Dayton; Michael Kuebler, Hawaii; Sean Finn, Dayton
MVP: Keith Waleskowski, Dayton
Dayton 82, Hawaii 72
WARRIORS (2-2)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 7 13 0 0 19 4 1 14 Sensley 2 7 2 2 23 3 1 7 Lee 1 2 0 0 34 1 4 3 Peciukas 1 2 4 8 33 0 0 6 Kuebler 6 13 9 10 40 5 0 23 Sottos 0 0 2 2 4 0 1 2 Carter 0 2 0 0 6 1 0 0 Shimonovich 4 5 5 5 27 4 1 13 Blackett 1 3 2 2 14 3 0 4 Totals 22 47 24 29 200 24 8 72
FLYERS (4-0)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Scott 3 7 0 0 26 7 1 6 Waleskowski 7 11 2 3 35 9 3 17 Finn 8 10 2 5 25 2 0 18 Marshall 9 17 6 7 36 3 3 27 Jones 1 3 4 8 28 1 2 6 Williams 2 5 0 0 19 1 2 6 White 0 3 0 0 12 3 0 0 Iguodala 0 0 0 0 9 1 0 0 Cripe 1 1 0 0 10 1 0 2 Totals 31 57 14 23 2000 33 11 82
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 33, Dayton 25.
3-point goals--Hawaii 4-14 (Kuebler 2, Sensley, Lee), Dayton 6-16 (Marshall 3, Williams 2, Waleskowski). Personal fouls--Hawaii 18, Dayton 21. Steals--Hawaii 3 (Carter, Martin, Kuebler), Dayton 6 (Waleskowski 2, Jones 2, Scott, Williams). Blocked shots--Hawaii 1 (Sensley), Dayton 0. Turnovers--Hawaii 11 (Kuebler 3, Sensley 2, Martin, Lee, Shimonovich, Blackett, Sottos, Team), Dayton 11 (Waleskowski 4, Finn 3, Cripe 2, Williams, Marshall). Attendance--2,500.
