UH skid continues
POSTED: Friday, January 23, 2009
RENO, Nev. » No doubt Hawaii basketball coach Bob Nash would relish the idea of his team playing a full 40 minutes of basketball every night. It hasn't happened very often this year, and it didn't happen last night.
NEXT UP
|
Hawaii did play one of its best halves of the season in the final 20 minutes against perennial Western Athletic Conference powerhouse Nevada. The Rainbow Warriors shot a solid 47 percent from the floor, including 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, and turned the ball over just two times.
The Rainbows' furious second-half rally, however, wasn't enough to overcome a 17-point halftime deficit, as they dropped a 74-63 decision to Nevada before a crowd of 7,247 at Lawlor Events Center.
The loss dropped Hawaii to 9-9 overall, 1-5 in the WAC. It doesn't get any easier for the Rainbows, who face conference leader Utah State, 18-1 overall and 6-0 in conference, tomorrow night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The loss was Hawaii's 10th in its last 11 conference games. It was the team's fourth straight loss and the 12th straight in Reno.
“;We came out strong in the second half,”; UH forward Roderick Flemings said. “;We should have come out strong like that in the first half. We always start off slow. We have to learn to play a whole 40 minutes.”;
This one had blowout written all over it. Nevada led 48-29 with 12:36 remaining, and that's when the Rainbows turned up the heat defensively, and the Wolf Pack faltered for a bit.
“;I thought tonight we got into a situation where we needed to get some points on the board and speed Nevada up,”; Nash said. “;They got too confident in their offense, so we tried to speed them up.”;
Led by Kareem Nitoto, who matched his career high with 14 points, Flemings, Brandon Adams, Petras Balocka and Lasha Parghalava, the Rainbows went on a 21-8 run to slice the deficit to 56-50 with 6:43 left. Adams scored four of his six points in that span.
Nitoto started the surge with a jump shot, and after Nevada's Armon Johnson misfired, Nitoto converted a three-point play. Flemings, who was held to 12 total points on 4-for-11 shooting, scored on a putback to make it 48-36.
Nevada's Luke Babbitt, who tied teammate Brandon Fields for scoring honors with 19 points, got the lead back up to 50-36 with two free throws with 10:51 left in the game. Treys by Parghalava and Nitoto made it 52-46 with 7:59 remaining. Nevada went 0-for-5 and turned the ball over three times in that span.
“;We made some mental errors,”; Nevada coach Mark Fox said. “;Give Hawaii credit for making some plays. They made a couple of 3s that were guarded. Hawaii got into the bonus so early in the second half. We had to go to a zone and never got our rhythm.
“;We can learn from this game. Hawaii has competitive kids. We knew they would make a run at us and they did. We didn't respond to the press. I was disappointed with how we handled it, especially with our experienced backcourt. As Brandon (Fields) said, it caught us off-guard but eventually we settled down.”;
Nevada, led by Malik Cooke's back-to-back buckets, answered the 21-8 run with a 9-2 surge of its own to get the lead back to double digits, 65-52, with 3:51 left. A tip-in by Balocka and a 3-pointer by Parghalava trimmed the lead to 65-57 with 3:03 left, but that's the closest Hawaii would get.
If Hawaii had played any kind of first half, it might have pulled off a huge upset. Instead, the Rainbows had one of their worst first-half efforts of the season, tying a season low of 20 points.
Hawaii actually had more free throws (eight) than field goals (six). The Rainbows shot 30 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times, which Nevada turned into 11 points.
Despite the lackluster performance, Hawaii only trailed 19-13 with 9:04 left in the half.
Hawaii went scoreless for the next 4-plus minutes, as Nevada scored five straight points to run its lead to double digits, 24-13. After Flemings broke the drought with a jump shot to make it 24-15, Nevada scored 10 straight to boost its lead to 34-15 with 2:28 left.
“;I don't think it was their defense,”; Nash said. “;I think it was our inability to take care of the basketball. We tried to force too many things and gave them runouts. I don't think it was their pressure. They didn't come at us any harder than anybody else.
“;Against a good team like Nevada, you can't turn the ball over trying to make passes. We may have been a little fatigued from the altitude or whatever in the first part of the game.”;
Also, Nevada was able to do a nice job defensively on Flemings in the first 20 minutes. Nevada allowed him only five shots and five points.
“;They tried to keep it out of my hands,”; Flemings said. “;They were physical (with me).”;
Nash agreed.
“;I think he played hard,”; Nash said of Flemings. “;I felt on a couple of shots he might have been bumped, but the officials didn't see it that way.
“;They tried to take him out of the game and force other guys to beat us. We had a couple of guys step up in the second half. We needed that in the first half.”;
Hawaii's leading scorer in the first half was Balocka. He managed just six points, four of them coming at the foul line.
WAC standings
WAC Overall
| W | L | Pct. | GB | W | L |
|
| Utah St. | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | — | 18 | 1 |
| Nevada | 5 | 1 | .833 | 1 | 12 | 7 |
| Boise St. | 4 | 2 | .667 | 2 | 13 | 5 |
| New Mexico St. | 3 | 3 | .500 | 3 | 9 | 10 |
| Idaho | 2 | 3 | .400 | 3 1/2 | 8 | 10 |
| San Jose St. | 2 | 4 | .333 | 4 | 8 | 9 |
| Louisiana Tech | 2 | 4 | .333 | 4 | 8 | 11 |
| Fresno St. | 1 | 4 | .200 | 4 1/2 | 8 | 11 |
| Hawaii | 1 | 5 | .167 | 5 | 9 | 9 |
Yesterday
Nevada 74, Hawaii 63
Boise State 87, New Mexico State 84
Utah State 62, San Jose State 58
Fresno State 63, Louisiana Tech 46
Tomorrow
Utah State at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Louisiana Tech at Boise State
New Mexico State at Idaho
Fresno State at San Jose State
Nevada 74, Hawaii 63
Wolfpack (12-7, 5-1)
| fg-a | ft-a | rb | pf | pts | a | to | min |
|
| Burleson | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
| Babbitt | 5-14 | 7-9 | 6 | 2 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 31 |
| Cooke | 4-8 | 4-5 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 33 |
| Johnson | 2-7 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 31 |
| Hunt | 3-4 | 0-0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 20 |
| Fields | 5-10 | 9-10 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 4 | 1 | 23 |
| Shaw | 0-1 | 1-2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15 |
| Giles | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Kraemer | 1-1 | 4-4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Phillips, R. | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Phillips, A. | 2-3 | 1-2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
| Team | 3 | |||||||
| Totals | 22-51 | 26-32 | 35 | 20 | 74 | 14 | 15 | 200 |
Rainbow Warriors (9-9, 1-5)
| fg-a | ft-a | rb | pf | pts | a | to | min |
|
| Nitoto | 5-8 | 3-3 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Campbell | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Flemings | 4-11 | 3-4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 34 |
| Mayen | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 19 |
| Amis | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 21 |
| Balocka | 2-5 | 6-8 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 26 |
| Thompson | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Parghalava | 2-10 | 3-4 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 35 |
| Fitzgerald | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Lutu | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adams | 3-3 | 2-2 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| Team | 2 | |||||||
| Totals | 21-52 | 17-21 | 28 | 22 | 63 | 12 | 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—Nevada 37, Hawaii 20. Regulation—Nevada 74, Hawaii 63.
3-point goals—Hawaii 4-12 (Parghalava 2-7, Nitoto 1-1, Flemings 1-3, Fitzgerald 0-1), Nevada 4-12 (Babbitt 2-3, Kraemer 1-1, Johnson 1-2, Burleson 0-1, Shaw 0-1, Giles 0-1, Fields 0-3).
Steals—Hawaii 6 (Nitoto 3, Flemings, Mayen, Parghalava), Nevada 11 (Cooke 4, Burleson 2, Johnson 2, Hunt 2, Giles). Blocked shots—Hawaii 1 (Amis). Nevada 3 (Hunt 2, Johnson).
Officials—Winston Stith, Dan Chrisman, Bobby Jacobs. Attendance—7,247.
