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Sottos, Sensley
turn it on at last

THIS was after the first timeout of the second half, during which Tulsa openly celebrated on Hawaii's home court, and Riley Wallace called his guys in and unleashed one of those Riley Wallace specials.

"That huddle," Jake Sottos would say, "wasn't very fun."

"My personality is to get into them and they know it and they respond to it," Wallace would say. "Because they don't want the wrath."

And then it happened. Julian Sensley, awake, awash in rebounds and 3s. He started with a 3 and a rebound and a steal and a 3 and another board.

Chris Botez forced traveling.

Sottos hit a 3, and it was loud.

Then Sensley went to the hoop, hard, forcing his way through the foul. Good. He missed the freebie, but Jeff Blackett rebounded it and Sottos hit another bomb. And UH had its first lead in a long, long time.

And then it was loud.

Then Botez had a steal and Sottos had a 3, and then Sottos drove -- unusual for him, he's an outside guy -- no harm no foul, but the basket was good.

And then Botez drew a charge and then Sensley from outside, again.

And again.

And again.

Wow.

These Rainbows continue to toy with our heart rates, falling behind by double digits in the first half, then roaring back.

"There's not a minute you can sit there and relax with those guys," Wallace said.

But in the end, what a win.

And in every Hawaii win it seems that someone unexpected steps up. We've seen it with Bobby (Glass) Nash. Last night, it was Deonte Tatum, who hustled, who quietly changed the pace and changed the game.

"He ignited us and got us back in it," Wallace said.

And Botez, a big guy doing little things.

"He got mad at me," Wallace would say, "and took it out on them."

The heroes, of course, were Sottos and Sensley. We don't count Sottos as an unknown anymore. He's still red hot, still smoking.

Last season he looked like a one-dimensional spot-up shooter who rarely played. This year, Sottos looks like he's got March written all over him.

"He's been on championship teams," Wallace would say.

"Coach got on us," Sensley would say. "He (Sottos) is the best pure shooter on this team, so we were looking for him."

He's hitting put-backs and layups and going inside.

And Sensley ...

Tatum threw an alley-oop into section CC, but Sensley stretched, reached, up, up, up into the sky, slammed it, planted it, and windmilled it through the hoop. With authority, you might say. But it was more than that.

It was moral authority.

He dunked that ball with righteous indignation, standing there afterward, a lightning rod in a storm.

"It's just contagious," he would say.

This was one of those runs.

They were clicking. They were cracking.

Sottos and Sensley didn't seem to miss. Sottos had 23 second-half points, five second-half 3s. Fourteen of Sensley's 21 came after the break.

"When we had a shot," Sensley said, "we took it."

This was the Sensley we'd been waiting for. He seems invisible, sometimes.

"Julian," Wallace would say, "he's a tough one. People don't understand him."

"You try and please Coach so much," Sensley would say, of not seizing the star role, of not putting it all on his back. "Coach has an offense that he likes to run."

But last night, they needed him.

"Tonight I actually told Jeff Blackett at halftime, I'm about to take over the second half," Sensley said.

Hawaii needed them both.

"We were both feeling it in the second half," Sottos said.

He and Sensley looked at each other, and smiled. They were both feeling it still.