[ RAINBOW BASKETBALL ]
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Michael Kuebler drove around Louisiana Tech's Barry Thompson during last night's game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
’Bows fall
by a pointSensley’s 3 at the buzzer
bounces off as Louisiana Tech
wins its first at UH
This time the shot refused to fall.
A Hawaii basketball team that had built its lead in the Western Athletic Conference by winning the close games fell out of first place last night as Louisiana Tech pulled out a 62-61 victory over the Rainbow Warriors before a stunned crowd of 6,024 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
LaTech guard Corey Dean converted a steal by Donell Allick into a 12-foot jumper with 47.1 seconds left to give the Bulldogs the lead. They then held off the Rainbows and celebrated the win after Hawaii's Julian Sensley missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Hawaii sent three games into overtime with clutch baskets in the final seconds and won two of those on buzzer-beaters earlier in the season. But Louisiana Tech came up with the final answer last night.
"In the last two or three minutes it comes down to players making plays and, boy, did we make a couple of big shots," La-Tech coach Keith Richard said.
Hawaii suffered its third home loss of the season to drop to 16-5 overall and 8-3 in the conference, falling a half-game behind Texas-El Paso (18-4, 9-3 WAC).
LaTech shot 64 percent from the field in the second half and evened its WAC record at 6-6 while improving to 12-10 overall in earning its first win in Honolulu since joining the WAC and splitting the season series.
"Just not enough intensity," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "They got anything they wanted offensively off our defense."
Louisiana Tech won despite having two players suspended, and a third, freshman Paul Millsap, didn't start the game for being late to the van before yesterday's shootaround. Guards JueMichael Young and Bruce Edwards did not suit up for the game for disciplinary reasons.
Millsap sat out the first three minutes of the game and finished with a game-high 19 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field. Forward Wayne Powell added 15 points and Allick had 13. Dean finished with 12.
"We're going through a lot right now, but we pulled it through," Allick said. "We followed the scout (plan) and left it out on the court."
The Rainbows outrebounded the Bulldogs 33-29 and grabbed 10 off the offensive glass. LaTech had been outrebounded just twice this season before last night's game.
But the stat was of little consolation for the UH players.
"They got the big rebounds," UH forward Jeff Blackett said. "It doesn't matter how many you end up with, it's the clutch ones that you need."
The Rainbows had a cold night from outside, hitting four of 21 shots beyond the 3-point line.
Blackett and Michael Kuebler scored 15 points each. Sensley had 12 and center Haim Shimonovich registered 11 points and 11 rebounds and three blocked shots.
LaTech took a 27-26 lead into halftime and scored the first nine points of the second half and opened up a 36-26 advantage on Powell's hook shot, forcing UH to take a timeout.
The Rainbows then went on a 12-0 run, tying the game on a 3-pointer by Kuebler and reclaiming the lead on a turnaround jumper by Shimonovich at the 13:35 mark.
After a jumper by Millsap tied the game at 38, the teams traded the lead nine times over the next six minutes.
Powell gave LaTech a 56-53 cushion with a three-point play, but Blackett tied the game with 2:49 left with his first 3-pointer of the season.
Hawaii took a 61-60 lead on a free throw by Kuebler with 1:28 left, but Allick later stole a pass from Kuebler and Dean hit a 12-foot jumper to give the Bulldogs a 62-61 advantage with 47.1 seconds left.
Hawaii called three timeouts while running down the clock, the last coming with 5.2 seconds left.
Sensley's 3-pointer from the right wing bounced off the rim and the Rainbows couldn't control the rebound before the buzzer sounded.
"It was for me to pass to the open guy. (Sensley) was open and he almost made it," Shimonovich said of the final play. "Sometimes you miss, sometimes you make it."
Hawaii must recover quickly to salvage a split of this week's homestand as the Rainbows face Southern Methodist tomorrow.
WAC men's standings
Yesterday's games
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. UTEP 9 3 .750 18 4 .818 Hawaii 8 3 .727 16 5 .762 Nevada 9 4 .692 15 7 .682 Rice 7 4 .636 15 7 .682 Fresno St. 7 5 .583 11 10 .524 Boise St. 6 6 .500 14 8 .636 Louisiana Tech 6 6 .500 12 10 .545 SMU 4 8 .333 10 12 .455 Tulsa 3 9 .250 7 14 .333 San Jose St. 0 11 .000 5 16 .238
Nevada 92, Boise St. 78
UTEP 58, Fresno St. 55
SMU 62, San Jose St. 55
Louisiana Tech 62, Hawaii 61
Tomorrow's games (All times Hawaii time)
Tulsa at Rice, 9:05 a.m.
Louisiana Tech at San Jose St., noon
Boise St. at Fresno St., 5 p.m.
UTEP at Nevada, 5:05 p.m.
SMU at Hawaii, 7:05 p.m.
Louisiana Tech 62, Hawaii 61
Bulldogs (12-10, 6-6 WAC)
Warriors (16-5, 8-3 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Allick 5 11 0 0 37 4 5 13 Powell 5 10 5 5 33 5 1 15 Johnston 0 1 0 0 6 3 0 0 Dean 6 13 0 0 39 2 2 12 Thompson 0 2 0 2 29 2 1 0 Woods 0 0 3 3 15 3 0 3 Millsap 9 14 1 4 37 8 3 19 Sykes 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 TEAM 2 Totals 25 52 9 14 200 29 12 62
Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 2 8 0 0 30 5 0 4 Shimonovich 5 9 1 2 34 11 0 11 Lee 2 6 0 0 36 4 9 4 Kuebler 4 13 4 6 40 2 2 15 Sensley 5 9 2 2 26 5 5 12 Carter 0 1 0 0 4 0 1 0 Blackett 7 11 0 0 24 2 0 15 Jesinskis 0 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 TEAM 3 Totals 25 57 7 10 200 33 14 61
Halftime--Louisiana Tech 27, Hawaii 26.
3-point goals--La. Tech 3-9 (Allick 3-7, Powell 0-1, Thompson 0-1), Hawaii 4-21 (Kuebler 3-11, Blackett 1-2, Carter 0-1, Lee 0-3, Sensley 0-4). Personal fouls--La. Tech 12, Hawaii 13.
Steals--La. Tech 3 (Allick, Thompson, Millsap), Hawaii 5 (Blackett 2, Sensley, Martin,Shimonovich). Blocked shots--La. Tech 0, Hawaii 4 (Simonovich 3, Sensley). Turnovers--La. Tech 11 (Dean 5, Allick 3, Thompson, Millsap, TEAM), Hawaii 8 (Kuebler 3, Carter 2, Jesinskis, Shiminovich, Lee). Officials--Tom Harrington, Bill Gracey, Brian Sorenson. Attendance--7,476.
