[ RAINBOW BASKETBALL ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dayton's Keith Waleskowski stripped the ball away from Hawaii's Phil Martin on Wednesday.
’Bows take a break
After three days on Maui that were far from a vacation, the Hawaii basketball team now has more than two weeks to build on what it learned on the Valley Isle.
The Rainbow Warriors opened their season by playing four games over a six-day span and came out even at 2-2 following an 82-72 loss to Dayton in the championship game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational in Lahaina on Wednesday.
Despite falling short of their goal of keeping the tournament title in the state for the first time in the event's 20-year history, the Rainbows left Maui having made significant strides in their development.
"I feel it was a good learning experience," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "We're a much better ballclub leaving here than we were when we came."
The team now goes back to the practice gym and won't have a regular-season game until it hosts Oregon State on Dec. 15. The lengthy break will be broken up by an exhibition against the California All-Stars on Dec. 7.
The Rainbows close the calendar year by hosting the Adidas Festival on Dec. 19-20 and the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic on Dec. 27-30.
"We have a long break, so we'll take some days off, get our legs back and then try to maintain our conditioning and keep working to get ready for Oregon State," Wallace said.
The Rainbows arrived on Maui on Saturday with the sting of a season-opening loss to UC Santa Barbara still fresh. They shook off a slow start to rally past Santa Clara in the first round of the Maui Invitational and held off a feisty Chaminade team in the semifinals.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Vaidotas Peciukas and Waleskowski battled for a rebound in the first half of the Maui Invitational title game.
Hawaii appeared ready to claim the tournament championship as it controlled the first half of the title game against Dayton, but the Flyers used a bit of coaching improvisation to rally past UH.
First-year Dayton coach Brian Gregory said he switched from man-to-man defense to a zone in the second half on a suggestion from his assistants. The Flyers' coaches taught the players the scheme in the locker room at halftime and implemented it midway through the second half. Dayton went on to outscore UH 41-24 in the final 11 minutes.
"We actually walked through new defensive coverages at halftime," Gregory said, "which was the first time I've ever done that and probably the first time these players have ever seen that as well.
"The offense they run is based on a rhythm and we did talk about the fact that if we needed it, that we should maybe look at the 3-2 (zone). I didn't want to use it in the first half so they couldn't make any adjustments at halftime."
Defense was also a key in Hawaii's run to the tournament final. The Rainbows held both Santa Clara and Chaminade to less than 40 percent shooting and stifled a talented Dayton squad in the first half of the title game.
"The key for us is to play great defense for us to win games," UH forward Phil Martin said. "We showed flashes of that and of what we can do. But the key is to sustain that throughout the whole game and that'll do us wonders down the road."
UH guard Michael Kuebler made the most of the Rainbows' three appearances on national television by averaging 22.3 points in the tournament. He shot 59 percent from the field, including 9-for-15 on 3-pointers.
Center Haim Shimonovich gave the Rainbows a boost in the post by scoring 12 points and grabbing more than eight rebounds per game.
Dayton's senior trio of guard Ramod Marshall, forward Keith Waleskowski and center Sean Finn all made the all-tournament team. They started their college careers by helping the Flyers to a third-place finish in the 2000 tournament, and carried the team to the title as seniors.
Waleskowski averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds in three games to earn tournament MVP honors as Dayton joined Indiana, Duke and Arizona as Maui Invitational champions this decade.
"Our name goes on that wall out there and it will remain there forever and that's pretty neat," Gregory said. "That's the one thing that's special about championships, they last forever."
