ASSOCIATED PRESS Julian Sensley of Hawaii drove to the basket against Saint Louis' Ian Vouyoukas yesterday.

Sensley’s game-winner
drops Billikens

ST. LOUIS » Julian Sensley had little impact on the first half of Hawaii's meeting with Saint Louis yesterday, and the 6-foot-9 forward attributed his sluggishness to the Midwest air, which he deemed too cold and too thin.

But a verbal slap in the face provided a wake-up call.

"We were sucking air out there and it took a while to get adapted," he said. "Coach got on me at halftime and said I needed to get my game up. I wasn't as aggressive as I usually am."

Feeling revived, Sensley scored 12 of his 15 points and grabbed nine of his 11 rebounds in the second half. He then capped the team's five-day excursion by hitting the game-winner on a leaning 12-footer with 15 seconds left to give the Rainbow Warriors a 53-52 win at Savvis Center in front of a crowd of 7,821.

Hawaii (4-0) overcame a nine-point deficit in the final 10 minutes and took advantage of another poor shooting performance by SLU (1-4), which repeatedly missed open shots inside 5 feet and looked like the team that had traveled across four time zones.

Coach Riley Wallace said arriving in St. Louis on Wednesday was critical, especially after he watched his team go through a horrible practice Thursday.

"That first day brought back memories of my second year, when we went to Iona and Iona kicked our butts, and we looked like we were running in mud," he said. "I said, 'I'll never do that again.' You have to give the kids a chance to recover.' "

The team practiced for two days at noon to prepare for the early tipoff (9:10 a.m. Hawaii time). However, the Rainbow Warriors didn't appear to have recovered by game time.

SLU dominated on the boards most of the day and finished with a 41-29 rebounding advantage.

The Billikens also held Hawaii to 37.5 percent shooting and reeled off their best run of the season with a 14-0 burst that led to a 42-33 lead.

Sensley was the only Hawaii player to score in the first 11 minutes of the second half. But he finally received some offensive help as Deonte Tatum, Vaidotas Peciukas and Matthew Gipson scored in quick order, and the Rainbow Warriors regained the lead with 6 minutes left.

After Reggie Bryant gave the Billikens their final lead with 35 seconds remaining, Wallace called timeout to set up the decisive play. He had only one bit of advice for his leading scorer.

"My coaching was not to shoot that fade-away jump shot because he always hits the front of the rim," Wallace said. "And he stuck with that. He faked the fall-away and stepped under."

Sensley was guarded most of the day by 6-5 Vas'Shun Newborne, but SLU switched to 6-8 Izik Ohanon for the final play.

"When I made the move I didn't expect him to bite that much," Sensley said. "I expected him to bite a little, and then I was going to go baseline. But I beat him pretty good and was able to have a wide-open shot at the basket."

SLU has suffered its four losses by a combined 12 points, including one in overtime. Coach Brad Soderberg has become accustomed to seeing opposing players deliver daggers. The Billikens were defeated by a late 3-pointer a week earlier and had a last-second 3-pointer force overtime in their opener.

And for the second consecutive game, he saw a potential game-winning shot miss the mark as Ohanon missed a wide-open 17-footer with 5 seconds remaining.

"They had their big-time player make a big-time play at the biggest time of the game," Soderberg said. "If I had to do it over again I'd do the same thing. I'd have Izik defend Sensley and I'm comfortable with Izik taking that last shot."

Hawaii had a huge height advantage, but SLU overcame some difficult matchups that saw 5-9 Dwayne Polk defending 6-5 Matt Gibson and 6-2 Anthony Drejaj matched briefly against Sensley.

The Rainbow Warriors' size did bother SLU's inside attack. The Billikens made only 10 of their 28 shots from 5 feet and closer, and centers Tom Frericks and Ian Vouyoukas were a combined 2-for-10 from the field.

Hawaii took advantage of SLU's 12 first-half turnovers and scored 18 points off turnovers for the game. But the Rainbow Warriors rarely were able to escape the grasp of SLU's defense, which has held opponents to 36 percent shooting for the season.

"We like to fast-break more than they let us, but we didn't get to the boards to get the break going," Wallace said.

"It's tough to win straight half-court basketball all year long. We know that and we have to get some running in there."

Hawaii 53, Saint Louis 52

Hawaii (4-0)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Jeff Blackett	2	8	0	1	24	4	3	4
Julian Sensley	6	16	2	3	39	11	0	15
Chris Botez	0	3	0	0	18	0	1	0
Matt Gibson	2	5	2	2	23	1	2	7
Bobby Nash	1	6	0	0	17	0	1	3
Jake Sottos	2	4	0	0	11	1	0	6
Matthew Gipson	4	5	1	2	27	4	1	10
Vaidotas Peciukas	1	3	0	0	13	2	2	2
Deonte Tatum	3	6	0	0	28	3	1	6
TEAM						3
Totals	21	56	5	8	200	29	11	53
Saint Louis (1-4)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Izik Ohanon	5	11	0	0	35	16	0	10
V. Newborne	4	5	0	0	30	1	1	9
Tom Frericks	1	6	0	0	16	9	2	2
Dwayne Polk	1	5	2	2	29	3	3	4
Reggie Bryant	7	15	2	2	32	1	1	19
Danny Brown	0	0	0	0	8	1	2	0
Ian Vouyoukas	1	5	0	0	22	4	0	2
Anthony Drejaj	2	5	2	2	24	4	3	6
Luke Meyer	0	0	0	2	4	1	0	0
TEAM						1
Totals	21	52	6	8	200	41	12	52

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 27, Saint Louis 23.
3-point goals--Hawaii 6-17 (Sottos 2-3, Sensley 1-4, Gibson 1-4, Nash 1-1, Gipson 1-2, Peciukas 0-1, Tatum 0-2), Saint Louis 4-11 (Bryant 3-7, Newborne 1-1, Drejaj 0-1, Polk 0-2). Personal fouls--Hawaii 12, Rice 12.
Steals--Hawaii 8 (Gibson 2, Nash 2, Tatum 2, Botez, Peciukas), Saint Louis 4 (Polk 2, Ohanon, Newborne). Blocked shots--Hawaii 1 (Botez), Saint Louis 1 (Vouyoukas). Turnovers--Hawaii 8 (Gibson 3, Sottos 2, Sensley, Nash, Tatum), Saint Louis 15 (Ohanon 3, Newborne 3, Bryant 3, Polk 2, Drejaj 2, Frericks, Brown). Officials--Kerry Sitton; Larry Ware; Steve Pyatt. Attendance--7,821.