ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii's Julian Sensley put a shot in front of San Jose State's Kareem Guilbeaux during yesterday's game.

UH rediscovers
its defense

No. 2 UTEP is up next

RENO, Nev. » If you're going to have a chance to win four basketball games in five days, you'd better get some quality minutes from some bench players.

And if you're going to win, period, you'd better play some defense.

Hawaii did both last night in a 72-48 blowout of San Jose State in the first round of the WAC tournament at the Lawlor Events Center.

The Rainbow Warriors' reserve guards, Deonte Tatum and Bobby Nash, combined for 18 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and no turnovers in 23 shining minutes apiece, and center Chris Botez kept Spartans star Marquin Chandler under control, allowing the rest of the Warriors to not worry too much about the talented second-team All-WAC player.

The next assignment for all the Rainbows is significantly tougher than the 6-23 Spartans, the 10th-seed in the tournament and last-place squad in the WAC. No. 7-seed Hawaii (16-12) plays No. 2 Texas-El Paso (24-7) tomorrow in a quarterfinal game. UH needs to win the tournament in order to secure an NCAA Tournament bid.

Forward Julian Sensley led Hawaii with 13 points, and he and Botez grabbed seven rebounds each. Botez also scored 10 points, but his biggest contribution was keeping Chandler to 15.

"Botez guarded him with his longer (7-foot) body," said Hawaii coach Riley Wallace, who in previous games used 6-foot-8 forward Jeff Blackett as the primary defender against the 6-foot-7 Chandler. "He locked the middle and cut down the penetration. (Chandler) likes to find those seams and create. (Because of Botez) we were able to stay out on our guys and cover."

Meanwhile, Tatum and Nash made up for sub-par performances from starting guards Matt Gibson and Jake Sottos, who scored just three points each.

"That's what's so great about this team. We're so deep," said Sensley, following UH's second win after five losses in a row. "If someone's not doing the job, someone else steps up. It's a good win for us. I think we're back to the old team we were at the beginning of the season. Everyone's hungry."

Tatum, who replaced Gibson after two quick fouls 5 minutes into the game, made the first 3-pointer in his UH career after 17 misses. It was part of an 11-0 run that made the score 24-12 at 4:56 before intermission.

"He had good quickness on the defensive end and he got us into our offense," Wallace said. "Tonight, our backup guards did the job."

"He got us into our offense, and that's important for us," Wallace said.

Tatum scored seven points and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds.

"They were just falling in my lap, man," Tatum said.

Nash scored 11 points, hitting three of five from 3-point land.

"Tonight our other guards had a little trouble getting started," said Nash, who quickly changed the subject to team defense. "It's great to have a presence in there like Chris Botez against Marquin Chandler, and Jeff, Matt (Gipson) and Julian helped."

Hawaii outrebounded San Jose State 38-26.

"Our inability to rebound was our Achilles' heel," said Spartans coach Phil Johnson, who coached his final game for the school after his resignation was announced Monday. "These are finesse players, we need more power. I thought we would play better."

Michael McFadden added 10 points, but he and Chandler didn't get much help.

UH built a 31-18 lead at the break, and San Jose State never led. But the Spartans scored the first six points of the second half, and then got it to 36-27 with 16:41 left.

"If they get the lead, they're dangerous. They will pass the ball around until the leather falls off," Wallace said.

The Warriors then scored eight of the next 10 points -- with Botez contributing a putback and a tip-in. San Jose State never recovered.

"We just had to regroup," Nash said. "Coach called a timeout and told us to get it together and pick it up."

The Rainbows shot 50 percent, their best effort in six outings. They allowed the fewest points since their 71-45 home victory against San Jose State on Jan. 8.

By design, nine of the 10 Rainbows who played logged between 10 and 30 minutes.

"I got everyone into the game, which is important at this time because you hope to play four games," Wallace said.

The stat the coach liked best was assists.

"When it's 22, we're going pretty good," he said.

Hawaii 72, San Jose State 48