ASSOCIATED PRESS Boise State's Coby Karl drove past Hawaii's Matt Gibson during the first half of yesterday's Broncos victory.

Hawaii tallies
another road loss

Rainbows trail by 16 at the half
and never close deficit

BOISE, Idaho » The Hawaii basketball team needs the comforts of home more than anything right now.

The Rainbow Warriors dropped their eighth straight Western Athletic Conference regular-season road game yesterday, falling to Boise State 80-76 at Taco Bell Arena. Hawaii's five losses this season have come by a total of 11 points.

The Rainbows (10-5, 2-5 WAC) return home this week for conference games against Rice on Thursday and Tulsa on Saturday.

"We've got some guys that aren't feeling good about themselves right now. When their jump shot doesn't go, or the coach is on them a little bit, they get down. And they've got to learn to get out of that," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "Home does wonders for you."

The first half wasn't kind to the Rainbows during their two-game jaunt on the mainland.

In a 71-70 loss to UTEP on Thursday, Hawaii trailed by eight points at halftime, then stormed back to lead by nine in the second half, but failed to close it out.

Yesterday, Boise State (9-9, 3-4) built a 47-31 lead thanks to a 12-0 run to end the first half. Hawaii clamped down on defense and closed to within four at the end of the game, but again fell short. Boise State led for the game's final 32 minutes.

"We're just not good enough right now to (win on the road)," Wallace said. "We've got to learn to play. You go on the road, you have to play 40 minutes of tough, hard-nosed basketball. And we're not doing that; we're playing a half."

Against Boise State, the culprits were rebounding and transition defense.

During Boise State's 12-0 run to close the half, forward Jermaine Blackburn grabbed two offensive rebounds and converted them into three-point plays. Center Tezarray Banks had a lay-in off a fast break and a putback of his own missed shot.

"They move the ball real well as a team," Hawaii forward Julian Sensley said.

Going into the game, the Rainbows had outrebounded 10 of their 14 opponents and had given up just 61.1 points per game. In the first half alone, Boise State scored 47 points on 57 percent (20-for-35) shooting and outrebounded a much taller Hawaii team 23-10.

Banks scored all 13 of his points and guard Eric Lane had 13 of his 16 before halftime.

"That's a very good basketball team, and that's a very good win for us," Boise State coach Greg Graham said. "From what we've been through this season, that's probably as good of a win as we've had since I've been here."

Hawaii showed how good it can be after halftime, as the Rainbows nearly reeled in the entire deficit, which reached 20 (51-31) early in the second half.

Where Boise State had its way in transition and in the post in the first half, the Rainbows battled back with aggressive man-to-man defense that limited the Broncos to 27 percent shooting in the second half, which included a 6-minute stretch without a field goal.

"We've been a pretty good defensive team all year. Our interior defense has been much better this year, but they just got good position and held it," Wallace said. "Where we were lazy on it in the first half, in the second half we were fighting them a little bit before they got there, and we were switching to try to keep them from getting there."

The Rainbows outrebounded the Broncos 26-19 in the second half and outscored them 45-33.

"The team you saw in the second half, playing out there tough and hard like that, it's the way we were when we were 8-0," Wallace said.

Sensley, Hawaii's leading scorer entering the game, played only 7 minutes in the first half and took one shot.

He injured the pinkie finger on his right hand during the UTEP loss, but wasn't making any excuses.

"I wasn't playing as hard as I think I could have played," Sensley said. "It was probably a good decision by Coach. It had nothing to do with my pinkie."

Sensley played all 20 minutes in the second half, made five of six shots and led Hawaii with 14 points. He also pulled down eight rebounds, seven coming in the second half.

"That tells you it's OK," Wallace said of Sensley's injured finger.

Senior forward Vaidotas Peciukas also morphed into a different player in the second half, scoring all 11 of his points after playing just 1 minute in the first half.

"I'm always ready whenever Coach puts me in," he said. "I'm always ready to come out and play 2 or 20 (minutes)."

Guard Jake Sottos made his first career start and scored 13 points. Forward Jeff Blackett also finished with 13 in regaining his starting role.

WAC Standings

	WAC	Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Nevada	7	1	.875	--	14	4
UTEP	6	1	.857	1/2	16	3
Rice	5	2	.714	1 1/2	10	5
Fresno State	5	3	.625	2	11	6
SMU	3	4	.429	3 1/2	8	7
Boise State	3	4	.429	3 1/2	9	9
Louisiana Tech	3	4	.429	3 1/2	8	8
Hawaii	2	5	.286	4 1/2	10	5
San Jose State	1	6	.143	5 1/2	4	12
Tulsa	1	6	.143	5 1/2	4	12

Yesterday
Tulsa 68, Fresno State 65
Nevada 62, Rice 59
Boise State 80, Hawaii 76
Louisiana Tech 58, SMU 57
UTEP 69, San Jose State 65

Boise State 80, Hawaii 76

Rainbow Warriors (10-5, 2-5 WAC)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Blackett	5	8	3	4	26	9	1	13
Sensley	5	7	2	2	27	8	2	14
Botez	3	6	0	2	22	4	1	6
Sottos	3	13	5	5	27	3	1	13
Tatum	3	5	3	4	22	1	2	9
Gibson	0	5	3	5	20	0	3	3
Gipson	0	1	0	0	10	0	1	0
Groce	1	2	0	0	10	0	0	3
Zivanovic	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Peciukas	4	6	2	4	18	3	1	11
Nash	2	6	0	0	16	4	0	4
Team						4
Totals	26	59	18	26	200	36	12	76
Broncos (9-9, 3-4 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Robinson	1	4	2	2	23	4	1	4
Blackburn	7	16	4	7	34	11	2	19
Banks	6	7	1	1	21	0	0	13
Lane	6	14	0	0	35	2	3	16
Karl	3	12	7	8	35	7	2	15
Thompson	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Lloyd	1	1	0	0	6	3	0	2
Harris	2	5	0	0	19	1	1	5
Ellis	2	6	2	2	24	6	0	6
Green	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Team						7
Totals	28	65	16	20	200	42	9	80

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime -- Boise State 47, Hawaii 31.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 6-22 (Sottos 2-10, Sensley 2-2, Peciukas 1-1, Groce 1-2, Gipson 0-1, Nash 0-1, Tatum 0-1, Gibson 0-4), Boise State 8-24 (Lane 4-9, Karl 2-8, Blackburn 1-3, Harris 1-4). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 20, Boise State 16. Fouled out -- None. Technical fouls--None.
Steals -- Hawaii 4 (Botez 2, Peciukas, Sensley), Boise State 4 (Banks, Ellis, Lane, Robinson). Blocked shots -- Hawaii 2 (Groce, Sensley), Boise State 3 (Ellis 2, Blackburn). Turnovers -- Hawaii 13 (Botez 3, Nash 2, Gibson 2, Peciukas 2, Tatum 2, Blackett, Groce), Boise State 14 (Blackburn 4, Banks 2, Karl 2, Ellis, Harris, Lane, Lloyd, Robinson, Thompson). Officials -- Batsell, Hernandez, Sorenson. Attendance--4,303.