StarBulletin.com

Rainbows outlast Idaho State


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POSTED: Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It took two separate days, overtime, and more than a handful of tense moments, but the Hawaii men’s basketball team outlasted Idaho State, 67-64, for its first win of the season this morning.

The Rainbow Warriors (1-2) played before a crowd of 2,033 at the Stan Sheriff Center and a national TV audience on ESPN as part of the network’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, a 25-hour period of wall-to-wall basketball.

The game, which tipped off at 11 p.m. and finished at 1:29 a.m., snapped a nine-game losing streak for Hawaii going back to last season.

The Rainbows also broke a two-game skid in overtime games.“I forgot how good it felt to win a Division I basketball game,” forward Bill Amis said. “There’s nothing better than that.”

Roderick Flemings scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the ‘Bows, while Amis added 13 points and Brandon Adams 10 in his first career start.

Lasha Parghalava hit a 3-pointer from the corner to put Hawaii up 53-51 with 1:31 to play in regulation.

But Amorrow Morgan (26 points) scored in a driving hoop to tie it and Hawaii couldn’t capitalize on two chances to win the game outright in the final 10 seconds.

The Rainbows were the more energetic team in overtime.

Flemings set the tone with a steal and putback, and point guard Kareem Nitoto knocked down all four free throws in the extra period to help ice the win.

Idaho State (1-1) trailed by three and had a final chance to send the game to a second overtime with 1.4 seconds left, but a full court inbounds pass was intercepted by Amis.

“Our pressure defense forced turnovers and kept the momentum on our side,” Hawaii coach Bob Nash said.

“We kept fighting back. It wasn’t pretty at times, but the effort was there.”

Hawaii trailed for most of the game and won despite shooting just 33 percent and committing 21 turnovers against ISU’s match-up zone.

“They took it up a couple notches defensively (late), I thought, and we panicked at times, threw the ball away,” Idaho State coach Joe O’Brien said.

Flemings played all 45 minutes and manned three different positions (shooting guard, small forward and power forward) over the course of the evening.

He looked ready to fall asleep afterward.“I’m tired, but we got the win, our first one,” Flemings said. “A hard win, too. It was hard work for a win, for real, ‘cause every basket was earned.”