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POSTED: Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Any questions about Hawaii's ability to respond after a morale-busting loss have been answered.

George Washington couldn't get anything going offensively against the stingy Rainbow Warriors, who rode a 73-47 rout into the consolation championship of the 45th Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Although the Rainbows (7-4) lost their opening-round game to Colorado State, they can still post a winning record in the final year of the Classic's eight-team format with a victory against Pepperdine (2-11) at 5 p.m. today.

A crowd of 3,219 saw UH post its largest victory margin of the season by hounding the Colonials (6-4) into 30 percent shooting (including 2-for-18 on 3-pointers) and 17 turnovers.

“;Every man's gotta do his job out there,”; Hawaii coach Bob Nash said. “;It starts from the first guy all the way through, and they have to have passion for this game. And they showed that tonight. They were inspired, and they came out and played hard.”;

GW's top two scorers, Rob Diggs and Damian Hollis, were held to no points at halftime and finished with nine combined.

Roderick Flemings led Hawaii with 18 points and 10 rebounds before sitting down for the final 8 minutes. Hiram Thompson, who made his first career start along with forward Paul Campbell, also took a seat early.

Thompson and Campbell were inserted into the starting lineup for Kareem Nitoto and Petras Balocka, respectively. Thompson became the third player to start at the point for UH this year.

“;That loss the other day was a heartbreaker,”; said Thompson, who had six points and three assists against four turnovers. “;We didn't come out and play the way we do. This game was going to make or break our season. If we play hard and win, it's a great way to start off the conference.”;

Thompson, who played in 2005-06, but went on an LDS mission for the past two seasons, played 23 minutes and received a loud ovation when he left with 5 minutes left. His action had been limited at best in the team's first 10 games.

“;We missed you, Hiram!”; one fan yelled.

The Colonials went to a variety of trap schemes against Hawaii's flex motion offense but point guards Nitoto (who Nash said was slowed with the flu) and Thompson sufficiently guided the 'Bows around them.

GW didn't eclipse 30 points until there were 9 minutes left, and didn't hit its first 3-pointer until 7 minutes, 35 seconds left.

“;Energy, really,”; said Campbell, who finished with five points and four rebounds in 19 minutes. “;Our team played a lot harder tonight as a group. The first night (against CSU) we weren't there as a team.”;

Balocka, who finished with 14 points, was fired up in practice after the team's opening-round loss to the Rams. His emotion continued into the consolation semifinal. In the first half, he took an elbow to the face from GW center Joseph Katuka on a rebound and was called for the foul.

But on the next Hawaii possession, Balocka went right back inside for a three-point play to loud applause.

As the Colonials became increasingly frustrated, Hawaii pressed the issue inside and earned 33 free throws compared to just 15 for GW.

Hawaii had no qualms packing in a zone while the Colonials futilely heaved up 3-point shots; GW went 0-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half. The visitors from Washington, D.C., did, however, crash the boards for 12 offensive rebounds. It didn't do much good as they shot just 25 percent overall in the first half to UH's 36.4 percent.

The 'Bows scored a basket at the halftime buzzer for the second straight game as Thompson caught an inbounds lob from Flemings, twisted in the lane and flipped in a left-handed shot for a 31-18 lead at intermission.

Flemings had 13 at the half.

 

Colorado State 82, Vermont 76

The Rams (5-8) of the Mountain West Conference advanced to their second Rainbow Classic title game in four years with an upset of the America East Conference Catamounts (7-4).

Colorado State, which beat host Hawaii in the opening round, plays Buffalo in tonight's final at 7:30.

“;We got up, got in a good little rhythm. Vermont went on a 9-0 run, but we stopped them after that,”; said CSU coach Tim Miles, who thought full team health coincided with back-to-back wins after a six-game losing streak coming into the tournament.

Marcus Walker came off the bench to score 26 points and CSU went 9-for-10 at the free-throw line in the final minute to seal the win. Walker, Willis Gardner (17 points) and Travis Franklin (10 points) each went to the stripe 10 times or more.

Colorado State led by as many as 13, but Vermont pulled within 68-66 and 71-69. Both times Walker responded with a big basket to keep his team in front.

“;We're doing a better job of staying focused and following through with our game plan,”; Walker said. “;We're just going to do our best tomorrow ... to leave Hawaii with a championship in the tournament.”;

Colin McIntosh led the Cats with 22 points, while Nick Vier added 18. Vermont meets Colorado in the third-place game at 1:30 p.m. today.

 

Buffalo 62, Colorado 60

It was Calvin Betts' turn to play the hero for the Bulls.

Betts hit a floater from just inside the free-throw line with 0.5 seconds left to send the Bulls (7-4) to the Classic championship in their tournament debut. It was Buffalo's second game-winning basket in two tournament games after Andy Robinson (16 points last night) beat the buzzer in overtime against Pepperdine.

“;(I'm) kind of speechless right now,”; said Betts, who finished with 15 points. “;The play wasn't even drawn up for me. I saw there was 2 seconds left, saw who was on me, decided to try for the shot and it felt good.”;

Colorado (7-4) hadn't led since the game's opening moments, but rallied to knot things up at 56 with 5 minutes, 14 seconds left. After Buffalo scored twice to go up four, the Buffs tied things up at 60 on Dwight Thorne II's runner with 11.7 seconds left.

Colorado called timeout, and the Bulls put an all-guard lineup into the game, just as they had against the Waves. Once again, the play broke down and was improvised—to the Bulls' benefit.

“;We've had some ones that have gone down to the wire, and it's good for these guys to experience the top side of that,”; Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon said. “;Everything didn't go great, but we played hard (32-21 rebounding advantage) and defended. We didn't lose our composure down the stretch.”;

Cory Higgins led four Buffaloes in double figures with 15 points.

Consolation semifinal

 

Pepperdine 58, Coppin State 56

The Waves proved the mightier of two one-win teams.

Pepperdine (2-12) earned its first win of the season over a Division I opponent when Lorne Jackson hit a driving floater off the window to break a tie game with 6.6 seconds left.

After a timeout by the Eagles (1-10), Tywain McKee sped up the floor and launched a pullup 3-pointer from the right angle, but his shot failed to draw iron at the buzzer.

Michael Thompson led the Waves with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. McKee had 21 for the Eagles.

Pepperdine closed the first half on a 17-2 run to lead 27-22.

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Hawaii 73,
George Washington 47
Colonials (6-4)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

	fg-a	ft-a	rb	pf	pts	a	to	min
Diggs	3-10	0-0	8	4	6	0	1	31
Hollis	0-5	3-4	3	4	3	1	2	14
Katuka	2-5	2-6	6	4	6	0	0	22
Alexander	1-2	0-0	4	2	2	2	2	24
Taylor	3-5	2-2	1	3	9	2	4	30
King	5-10	0-0	2	1	10	5	3	25
Lee	0-2	0-0	1	0	0	0	1	5
Ware	0-4	2-2	1	2	2	0	3	12
Opoku	3-4	0-1	3	5	6	0	0	10
Wilmore	0-6	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	12
Laplante	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Allbritton	1-7	0-0	0	0	3	0	1	13
Team			6
Totals	18-60	9-15	35	26	47	10	17	200

Rainbow Warriors (7-4)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

	fg-a	ft-a	rb	pf	pts	a	to	min
Mayen	2-3	1-2	2	3	6	1	1	14
Amis	2-8	2-2	3	1	6	1	0	27
Campbell	2-3	1-2	4	4	5	1	0	19
Thompson	2-5	2-2	3	1	6	3	4	23
Flemings	5-12	8-13	10	1	18	1	3	30
Nitoto	1-1	2-2	0	0	4	1	1	15
Balocka	4-7	5-6	4	4	14	0	3	16
Parghalava	4-6	1-1	4	0	10	3	2	29
Xiang	0-1	0-0	0	1	0	1	0	2
Albrechtson	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Adams	1-3	2-3	4	2	4	1	1	18
Jespersen	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	1	4
Team			5
Totals	23-49	24-33	40	17	73	13	16	200

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—Hawaii 73, George Washington 47. Regulation—Hawaii 31, George Washington 18.

3-point goals—George Washington 2-18 (Taylor 1-1, Allbritton 1-7, Lee 0-1, Hollis 0-1, King 0-3, Wilmore 0-5), Hawaii 3-12 (Mayen 1-2, Balocka 1-3, Parghalava 1-3, Thompson 0-2, Flemings 0-2).

Steals—George Washington 8 (King 3, Katuka, Alexander, Taylor, lee, Opoku), Hawaii 6 (Thompson 3, Nitoto 2, Balocka). Blocked shots—George Washington 5 (Katuka 2, Diggs, Hollis, Opoku), Hawaii 3 (Amis 2, Adams).

Officials—Eddie Jackson, Eric Curry, Bryan Barr. Attendance—3,219.