'Bows bucked

Hawaii closes its lengthy road trip with a loss to the Broncos

SANTA CLARA » Sean Denison emerged from the Santa Clara locker room wearing a gray T-shirt with the Hawaiian Islands on the front.

"My dad goes over to Maui every summer," the 6-foot-11 Santa Clara forward said. "He always brings me stuff."

SANTA CLARA - 68 HAWAII - 59 NEXT UP VS. UNLV ON TUESDAY

The Rainbow Warriors would probably be surprised that anybody has to give Denison anything. Last night, Denison took and took and took, grabbing 10 rebounds to lead a Santa Clara onslaught on the boards. The result was a 68-59 victory for the Broncos.

It was a dismaying loss for Hawaii. In one game, the Rainbows frittered away the good feelings from a third-place finish at the Great Alaska Shootout. Guard Matt Lojeski was disgusted with the effort.

"It's just disappointing," he said. "We came out and we didn't have the energy, we didn't have the will to win. It was almost like we didn't want to win."

Added coach Riley Wallace, "This team is an average team if we don't have the tempo. We were just flat. That's three games very similar: Vegas, they were much quicker and got after us; Cal and now Santa Clara."

Those would be the three Warrior losses in the season's first seven games. The shocking thing about last night's game was that Hawaii had been outstanding on the boards this year, having outrebounded every opponent save Cal coming into the game. Santa Clara, however, enjoyed a 45-24 rebounding advantage.

Denison was just one of many Broncos to have a big game on the glass. Starting center John Bryant pulled down nine rebounds and his backup, 7-footer Josh Higgins, added eight.

Center Stephen Verwers had seven rebounds to lead the Warriors, but he was scoreless for the night, one of two Hawaii starters to be shut out. The other was forward Ahmet Gueye, who missed all six of his shots from the floor. It was the first time in Gueye's two seasons that he was shut out. He came into the game averaging 12.2 points per game -- second on the team.

"I thought he was intimidated," Wallace said. "When he doesn't have a good night, you lose 14 points, that hurt us."

Lojeski noted that it's hard to win when two of your starters are scoreless.

"We usually rely on Ahmet to get us 12-14 points and eight rebounds," Lojeski said. "Not to take anything away from their bigs. You can't lose focus, you've got to box out."

Gueye sat for one long stretch in the game and only played 24 minutes.

"It looked like Riley wasn't happy with his play," Santa Clara coach Dick Davey said. "Most nights he's gonna be a factor."

Santa Clara (4-2) struggled throughout the first half, needing a late 3-pointer by Mitch Henke to take a 33-31 lead into halftime. Hawaii forced 13 turnovers in the half.

"That's why we had a (31-30) lead," Wallace said. "The turnovers made up for the rebounding."

Henke's basket seemed to give the Broncos momentum. Santa Clara scored the first five points of the second half and never trailed again.

The lead was as big as 14, but the Rainbows made a mini-run late to cut it to seven, thanks to some missed Bronco free throws. Hawaii actually had the ball down seven in the final minute, but in a telling sequence, couldn't even get a shot off, fumbling the ball out of bounds back to Santa Clara.

After the game, Wallace told his team, "it's got to hurt a little while." Lojeski clearly was hurting.

"We need to remember that this happened," he said. "We have to get after our next game. We have six in a row at home. I want at least five of six at home."

Santa Clara 68, Hawaii 59

RAINBOW WARRIORS (4-3)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Gueye	0	6	0	0	24	4	4	0
Verwers	0	2	0	0	27	7	1	0
Gibson	4	11	3	4	40	3	5	14
Lojeski	6	11	4	4	32	4	4	16
Nash	3	7	0	0	17	1	1	7
Waters	4	8	2	2	23	0	1	10
Jackson	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Luettgerodt	2	2	2	2	8	0	1	6
Owsley	2	5	2	2	14	2	0	6
Follmer	0	2	0	0	14	1	0	0
TEAM						2
Totals	21	52	13	14	200	24	17	59

BRONCOS (4-2)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Denison	2	5	1	3	35	10	1	5
Henke	5	9	0	0	24	6	1	11
Bryant	4	9	1	2	16	9	0	9
Angley	5	8	3	7	32	5	3	14
Pariseau	4	6	1	5	29	3	0	11
Higgins	3	8	5	6	20	8	0	11
Johnson	0	2	0	0	10	1	1	0
Rohe	0	2	0	0	9	1	0	0
Dougherty	3	5	0	0	23	1	3	7
Latimer	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
TEAM						1
Totals	26	54	11	23	200	45	9	68

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 -- Santa Clara 33, Hawaii 31

3-point goals -- Hawaii 4-13 (Gibson 3-9, Nash 1-1, Lojeski 0-1, Waters 0-2), Santa Clara 5-13 (Pariseau 2-2, Dougherty 1-2, Henke 1-3, Angley 1-3, Rohe 0-1, Johnson 0-2). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 24, Santa Clara 21. Fouled out -- Owsley, Waters, Henke.

Steals -- Hawaii 11 (Gueye 3, Gibson 3, Lojeski 3, Waters, Follmer), Santa Clara 5 (Denison 2, Angley, Pariseau, Dougherty). Blocked shots -- Hawaii 4 (Verwers 2, Gueye, Lojeski), Santa Clara 4 (Denison, Bryant, Angley, Higgins). Turnovers -- Hawaii 15 (Gueye 6, Waters 3, Nash 2, Gibson, Lojeski, Luettgerodt, Owsley), Santa Clara 23(Denison 4, Henke 4, Bryant 4, Angley 4, Pariseau 4, Johnson 3).

Officials -- Bob Staffen, Mike Reed, Mike Littlewood. A -- 1,623.