'Bows evade pitfall

Loyola Marymount leads by as many as 10, but Hawaii finds a way to advance in the tourney

The Hawaii basketball team had its four-year reign as Rainbow Classic champion seriously threatened by Loyola Marymount last night.

But the host Rainbow Warriors rallied from a 10-point deficit and held off the Lions to advance to the semifinals with a 66-63 win at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH (5-2) remained undefeated at home and picked up a first-round win in the Classic for the 10th straight year.

The Rainbow Warriors face Colorado State tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. LMU (3-7) falls into the consolation bracket and plays Western Michigan at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

"They are a very strong team with a lot of quickness and ... they just took it to us," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "I don't see how they're 3-6 playing the way they did tonight.

"The second half we fired up a little bit and got a little bit more physical ourselves and didn't give them much good looks."

UH guard Matt Lojeski and forwards Julian Sensley and Ahmet Gueye all finished with 14 points each to lead the Rainbows. Gueye also grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots, while forward Matthew Gipson contributed eight points and 11 boards.

"In the locker room it seems like we lost," Gipson said. "Everybody's got their head down. We know we're a better ballclub than that."

The effort was just enough to survive LMU forward Matthew Knight's 20 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Brandon Worthy added 17 points for the Lions.

"It was something that slipped away from us," LMU coach Rodney Tention said.

UH pulled out the win despite making just 19 of 37 free throws and missed several key shots down the stretch to keep the score tight.

The Rainbows made just 2 of 8 attempts from the line in a 2-minute span late in the game, but freshman Dominic Waters was able to knock down two free throws with 11.8 second left to seal the win.

"We can't let that happen," Sensley said of UH's struggles from the line. "We practice free throws every day. It's just a mental thing. We have to be mentally ready when it comes down to crunch time."

Hawaii trailed by as many as 10 in the first half as the Rainbows struggled to find their rhythm on offense against tight defense by the Lions and trailed 33-28 at halftime.

After a jumper by Gipson tied the game at 15, the Rainbows managed just one field goal over the next 7 minutes and LMU capitalized on the 'Bows cold shooting with a 14-3 run.

"That's the focus, being good defensively," Tention said.

LMU guard Wes Wardrop hit two 3-pointers in the run, the second giving the Lions a 29-19 advantage at the 4:05 mark of the first half.

The scenario was similar to UH's losses to UNLV and Wisconsin-Milwaukee on the road, when the Rainbows struggled to execute against defensive pressure.

"The two games we lost on the road, they got up in us and pressured us," Gipson said. "The film's out on us. They think if they can take us out of our offense and out of our running game they have a chance. We have to execute better in the half court offensively and match their intensity on the other end."

LMU stretched the lead back to nine in the opening moments of the second half and were able to maintain a slight cushion much of the half.

UH clawed back to within a point at 50-49 with 8:32 left when Sensley got a leaner in the lane to fall, and the Rainbows reclaimed the lead on two free throws by Lojeski.

LMU leapfrogged back ahead and went up 58-54 on Jon Ziri's 3-pointer from the right side with 5:40 left.

UH didn't allow another field goal until the final 15 seconds of the game. The Rainbows used an 8-0 run to open up a 62-58 edge on Gueye's putback and free throw with 3:17 remaining.

The Lions got to within a point when Worthy converted a three-point play with 14.6 seconds to play.

UH freshman guard Dominic Waters coolly hit two free throws to push the lead back to three and Worthy's 3-point attempt as time ran out was blocked by Chris Botez to end the game.

Hawaii 66, Loyola Marymount 63

LIONS (3-6)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Worthy	6	15	5	7	37	4	3	17
Wardrop	2	10	0	0	38	5	4	6
Knight	7	15	6	10	37	12	0	20
Ziri	3	7	0	2	17	1	1	7
Ayer	1	4	0	0	19	4	0	2
Montgomery	2	5	2	2	28	2	2	7
Deric	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Haywood	2	4	0	0	13	4	0	4
Brown	0	3	0	0	10	1	0	0
TEAM						5
Totals	23	63	13	21	200	38	10	63

RAINBOW WARRIORS (4-2)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Gipson	4	11	0	1	27	11	2	8
Lojeski	3	7	7	8	40	4	4	14
Tatum	4	6	0	3	32	3	3	8
Sensley	5	13	4	9	40	2	4	14
Gueye	5	10	4	10	35	13	0	14
Wilder	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	0
Waters	1	1	4	4	5	0	1	6
Botez	1	2	0	2	18	4	1	2
TEAM						1
Totals	23	50	19	37	200	40	15	66

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 -- Loyola Marymount 33, Hawaii 28

3-point goals -- LMU 4-12 (Wardrop 2-8, Montgomery 1-1, Ziri 1-3), Hawaii 1-8 (Lojeski 1-3, Gipson 0-1, Tatum 0-1, Sensley 0-3). Personal fouls -- LMU 28, Hawaii 15. Fouled out -- Ayer, Haywood, Montgomery, Gipson.

Steals -- LMU 10 (Ziri 3, Montgomery 2, Worthy 2, Ayer, Brown, Wardrop), Hawaii 1 (Gueye). Blocked shots -- LMU 1 (Knight), Hawaii 9 (Gueye 4, Botez 2, Gipson 2, Lojeski). Turnovers -- LMU 7 (Ayer, Montgomery, Worthy, Ziri, team 3), Hawaii 12 (Gueye 3, Tatum 3, Gipson 2, Wilder 2, Botez, Waters). Officials -- Randy McCall, Bob Staffen, Greg Burks. A -- 5,019.