By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
HOUSTON — Apparently starting on Hawaiian time, the Hawai‘i men’s basketball team came up short in a 70-64 loss to Rice last night.
Due in large part to an atrocious seven-minute stretch to open the game, the Rainbows fell to 8-9 overall and 2-4 in the Western Athletic Conference. It was Hawai‘i’s ninth consecutive WAC road loss, including three this season.
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| Rice’s T.J. McKenzie swats away a shot attempt by Hawai‘i’s Troy Ostler, who tried to drive on Mike Wilks.
Associated Press |
Rice improved to 11-6 and 3-2 with its first WAC victory over the Rainbows since joining the conference in 1996. The game was played before 2,514 fans at Autry Court, and a regional television audience on Fox Sports Southwest.
"They jumped on us early and set the pace for the ball game," Hawai‘i coach Riley Wallace said. "They won the game; they played good enough to win, so you can’t take that away. But it would’ve been a better game if we played 40 instead of 30 minutes."
Hawai‘i scored the first basket of the game, but lost the lead moments later. After taking a 4-2 advantage with just over 18 minutes remaining in the first half, the Owls would never relinquish the lead.
A telling sign came moments before tip-off when Hawai‘i freshman forward Phil Martin "up-chucked" because of an upset stomach, according to Wallace. Martin still started the game, but was ineffective. He grabbed three rebounds, and did not score in his 17 minutes.
"I was having a hard time just running up and down the court," said Martin, who scored a career-high 21 points in Hawai‘i’s previous game, a victory over San Jose State. "I just felt sick the whole time."
The feeling must have spread to the other Rainbow starters. In the first seven minutes of the game, Hawai‘i made one of its five shots, and committed six turnovers, allowing Rice to take an 11-2 lead. The Owls built the lead to as many as 12 in the first half before settling for a 30-26 advantage at halftime.
"We do that on every road trip," Hawai‘i center Troy Ostler said. "We get off to a slow start before we finally realize we’re getting our butt kicked. By the time we finally get our act together, it’s too late."
True to form, the Rainbows put together a rally that proved to be too little, too late.
Behind the shooting of Ostler and Predrag Savovic, Hawai‘i got as close as 48-47 midway through the second half.
But in the next 66 seconds, Rice got three 3-pointers — two by Michael Walton and one by Erik Cooper — in three possessions to push the lead back to 10 with 7:58 remaining.
"That killed us," Savovic said. "We got right back in it, and they made three in a row."
Hawai‘i got as close as 65-62 late in the game and had a chance to tie, but Carl English’s 3-point attempt missed the entire rim with 40 seconds remaining. Rice made five of six free throws in the final 27 seconds to clinch the victory.
"I was nervous until the final buzzer," said guard Mike Wilks, who led Rice with 18 points.
Ostler led the Rainbows with 27 points, including 19 during the second half. He shot 9-of-16 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line. Savovic added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Nerijus Puida scored 14.
The Rainbows’ 17 turnovers led to 26 Rice points. In contrast, Hawai‘i managed to score just 12 points off Rice’s 15 turnovers.
"They were real aggressive," Wallace said of the sticky Rice defense that collected 10 steals and five blocked shots while limiting Hawai‘i to 42 percent field-goal shooting (21-of-50). "They had quick hands and caused some big turnovers."
Rice, which won just one WAC game last season, also got 14 points from Cooper, 12 from Shawn Tyndell, and a sense of redemption.
"We lost a lot of tough games here last year, and Hawai‘i was one of them," said Wilks. "So we came out with that in the back of our minds."
The victory may have proved costly, however, as starting center T.J. McKenzie injured his right knee early in the second half. The 6-foot-11 junior scored six points and grabbed five rebounds last night.
Hawai‘i, which is now 1-17 in its last 18 WAC road games, suffered a different kind of pain after dropping into seventh place in the nine-team conference standings. "We knew coming in that this could be one road win we could take because we did it last year," said Ostler. "But that’s why it hurts even more."
The Rainbows will remain on the road for another conference game at Tulsa on Sunday.
RICE 70, HAWAI‘I 64
HAWAI‘I (64)
MP FG FT R A S PF TP
Martin 17 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 3 0
Puida 26 5-7 1-1 2 2 0 4 14
Ostler 33 9-16 9-11 5 0 0 2 27
Savovic 39 5-14 4-4 10 5 0 3 18
Hilton 31 0-1 0-2 2 5 0 5 0
McIntyre 5 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 2 0
Terrell 8 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0 0
Burneika 28 2-7 0-0 1 4 1 0 5
English 13 0-2 0-0 3 0 0 1 0
Team 2
Totals 200 21-50 14-18 29 17 1 20 64
Percentage .420 .778
RICE (70)
MP FG FT R A S PF TP
Cooper 26 5-6 2-2 4 1 1 2 14
Diene 26 1-3 4-4 5 1 0 1 6
McKenzie 15 3-6 0-0 5 0 1 2 6
Tyndell 35 5-10 0-2 1 4 0 0 12
Wilks 39 3-11 11-13 5 5 5 3 18
Evans 25 1-2 2-2 4 0 1 5 4
Walton 23 2-5 0-1 1 3 2 0 6
Craig 2 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 1 2
Morgan 9 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 5 2
Team 2
Totals 200 22-45 19-24 29 14 10 19 70
Percentage .489 .792
HAWAI‘I (8-9, 2-4 WAC) 26 38—64
RICE (11-6, 3-2 WAC) 30 40—70
3-point goals — UH 8-18 (Savovic 4-7, Puida 3-4, Burneika 1-3, HIlton 0-1, English 0-1, McIntyre 0-2), Rice 7-18 (Cooper 2-3, Walton 2-4, Tyndell 2-6, Wilks 1-5).
Blocked shots — UH 2 (Ostler 2), Rice 5 (Diene 4), Wilks). Turnovers — UH 15, Rice 13. Technical fouls — none.
Att-2,514 (Turnstile).
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