Late ’Bows get crushed

STORY SUMMARY »

LAS CRUCES, N.M. » A late-arriving Hawaii basketball team closed the regular season with its most lopsided loss of the season as the Rainbow Warriors suffered through a 106-71 defeat to New Mexico State last night at the Pan American Center.

NMSU forward Justin Hawkins celebrated senior night by scoring a career-high 37 points, 21 in the first half, and the Aggies (19-13, 12-4 Western Athletic Conference) captured a share of the league's regular-season championship.

Aggie guard Fred Peete just missed a triple-double, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as NMSU become the first UH opponent to break the century mark since 2001. The Aggies dominated UH inside, winning the rebounding battle 65-29 and scoring 56 points in the paint to UH's 14.

The Rainbows (11-18, 7-9), hampered by travel delays Friday and yesterday, arrived in Las Cruces just hours before tipoff, and didn't have a pregame shootaround.

Riley Luettgerodt led the Rainbows with a career-high 26 points and guard Matt Gibson finished with 16.

The Rainbows, who have lost six straight, are the fifth seed in the WAC tournament and face Boise State in the quarterfinals Thursday at the Pan American Center.

FULL STORY »

LAS CRUCES, N.M. » It took Hawaii more than a day to get to Las Cruces.

The 2 hours they spent on the court with New Mexico State may have felt even longer for the Rainbow Warriors.

Once the Rainbows -- vexed by travel delays Friday and again yesterday morning -- arrived at the Pan American Center they were greeted with a 106-71 rout as the Aggies captured a share of the Western Athletic Conference's regular-season title while sending UH to its sixth straight defeat.

Led by forward Justin Hawkins' career-high 37 points, NMSU (19-13, 12-4) delivered a thoroughly dominating performance on senior night in breaking the century mark for the third time this season. It marked the first time a UH opponent hit for 100 since 2001.

When the Rainbows took the floor for warmups, it was the first time they had been on a court since losing at Louisiana Tech on Thursday. They didn't practice on Friday while stuck in Dallas and didn't have a shootaround after they rolled into Las Cruces yesterday around 2 p.m.

"They were just a way better team tonight," said Hawaii swingman Riley Luettgerodt, whose career-high 26 points was muted by the loss.

"It wouldn't have mattered if we had gotten here on time and slept and had shootaround, it didn't make a 37-point difference. That would just be an excuse. We just got handled out there."

In a wild turnabout, NMSU avenged a 23-point loss to UH back in January and have won eight of nine since that night in Honolulu.

"The bigger thing is we got a conference championship out of it on senior night rather than who the opponent was," NMSU coach Marvin Menzies said.

Tiebreakers left NMSU with the third seed in this week's WAC tournament as the Aggies look to defend their title.

Hawaii (11-18, 7-9) will be the fifth seed and faces Boise State at noon (8 a.m. Hawaii time) in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.

"We're a little banged up, we're on a six-game losing streak and we haven't been able to dig our way out of it," UH coach Bob Nash said. "But we're going to go back to work tomorrow and start working toward getting ready for the conference tournament now."

Hawkins led five NMSU players in double figures. Guard Fred Peete nearly pulled off a triple-double, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Center Martin Iti chipped in with 10 points and 13 boards.

Other than Luettgerodt and Matt Gibson (16 points), the Rainbows struggled to produce on offense. The duo combined to shoot 15-for-28 from the field, the rest of the team went 9-for-38.

Hawaii stayed close for the first few minutes before NMSU raced clear out of sight by outscoring UH 30-8 an 11-minute stretch in the first half.

When the Rainbows showed a zone early on, the Aggies shot over them, hitting five of eight from 3-point range in the first half.

When UH missed on its end, the Aggies ran past the Rainbows to score in transition.

"It was a team effort on their part," Nash said. "They had inside and they had outside.

"I don't know if we had enough in the tank to dig our way back and they just kept bringing it and kept executing their stuff and we didn't have any answers."

The Aggies ended the game shooting 51 percent from the field, and held a staggering 65-29 advantage on the boards, including 28 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second-chance points.

Hawkins torched the Rainbows down low and from the perimeter in shooting 8-for-11 from the field in the first half. His second trey gave NMSU 50-29 halftime lead.

"We were real hyped," Hawkins said. "We were just ready to play."

WAC standings

NMSU 106, Hawaii 71

RAINBOW WARRIORS (11-18, 7-9 WAC)

Key -- fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; rb: rebounds; pf: personal fould; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime -- New Mexico State 50, Hawaii 29

3-point goals -- NMSU 8-26 (Hawkins 3-9, Peete 2-3, Gibson 2-5, Young 1-4, Iti 0-2, Jones 0-1, Pope 0-1, Castillo 0-1), Hawaii 8-24(Luettgerodt 4-6, Dillinger 2-8, Nash 2-6, Veit 0-1, Gibson 0-3).

Steals -- NMSU 10 (Peete 4, Hawkins, Passos, Young, Pope, McKines, Castillo), Hawaii 5 (Gibson 2, Campbell 2, Luettgerodt). Blocked shots -- NMSU 6 (Pope 2, Steward, Passos, Iti, Britt), Hawaii 4 (Amis 2, Campbell 2).

Officials -- Bob Staffen, Bobby Vetkoetter, Martin Cota. A-- 7,296.