RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM UH's Chris Botez, left, and Julian Sensley tangled for a loose ball against Louisiana Tech's Donnell Allick on Saturday.

Opponents zone in on
ways to defend Rainbows

After UH struggled against
SMU's zone, LaTech followed suit

Word travels fast in college basketball circles.

That's why Hawaii basketball coach Riley Wallace wasn't surprised to see Louisiana Tech sit back in a zone defense Saturday night.

And after struggling to a 61-59 loss to the Bulldogs, the Rainbow Warriors expect to face more zones during the Western Athletic Conference season.

"When that word gets out, you're going to see zone after zone after zone until you learn how to attack it and beat it," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said.

After a rare loss at home, the Rainbows (10-3, 2-3 WAC) must regroup for a road trip that will take them to UTEP on Thursday and Boise State on Saturday, where they will try to solve their zone issues.

"We're bummed about this one, that we let one get away," UH guard Jake Sottos said. "We just have to come out and practice hard and get ready for UTEP."

Louisiana Tech coach Keith Richard said a short bench and concern over guarding UH's flex offense led to the Bulldogs playing 40 minutes of zone defense against Hawaii on Saturday.

But after Southern Methodist gave UH problems with a zone in the second half of UH's win Thursday, the Rainbows figured the Bulldogs would give it a try as well.

"Coach said if we keep not playing well against it, we'll keep seeing it," Sottos said.

The SMU and Louisiana Tech zones facilitated career nights for Sottos, who hit nine of UH's 11 3-pointers in the two games -- three against SMU and six against LaTech. His 37 points last week eclipsed his season total of 30 going into the games.

However, UH shot 27 percent as a team (11-for-41) beyond the arc last week and is at 31 percent this season.

The zones prevented UH from running its flex-motion offense, which uses movement and screens to create open looks at the basket.

The Rainbows were able to get the ball inside on drives or with nifty interior passing at times against Louisiana Tech, but not often enough to pull out the win.

Wallace said the key to countering the zone is to generate more points in the paint and at the free-throw line rather than hoisting jumpers from the perimeter.

The 'Bows made a season-low three free throws Saturday, and their eight attempts from the line matched the fewest this season.

"If I was an opponent coming in I would zone too," UH center Chris Botez said. "If you don't take the ball aggressive to the hole and get to the free-throw line, I would play zone the whole game, too."

Said Wallace: "The fans want to see you shoot the 3s, but that's what (the opponents) want to see, too. They're saying, 'Those big guys will kill you if you play man-to-man inside. ... So we're going to play a zone and make them shoot 3s because they're not a good 3-point shooting team.' And if you take the ball out of Jake's hands, we're not."

UH is 32-5 in WAC games at the Stan Sheriff Center since 2000 -- Louisiana Tech being responsible for the last two Rainbow losses -- and needs to steal a couple on the road to remain in contention for the regular-season title.

UH enters the week in sixth place in the WAC. Fresno State and Nevada are tied for first at 5-1, with UTEP and Rice a half-game back at 4-1. SMU is next at 3-3.

UTEP suffered its first WAC loss on Saturday, falling 66-63 at Fresno State.

"We have to get this team back together," Wallace said. "They have to understand their roles better and they also have to know that they have to show up and play hard every night or we're going to get beat ... and we have to attack those zones."