Posted on: Monday, December 2, 2002

UH men fill basketball void with intense scrimmage

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

A two-week break between games doesn't mean it's time to rest for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team.

The 'Bows, who opened the season with two impressive wins on Nov. 22 and 24, participated in a physical intrasquad scrimmage yesterday.

"Let's face it, we have a bad schedule, and we have to live with it," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "So we needed a scrimmage like this to keep our energy level up and keep showing improvement."

The results of the scrimmage were mixed. Wallace loudly chastised several of his experienced starters, even demoting Mark Campbell and Phil Martin to the reserve squad at halftime.

"We know who's going to play," Wallace said. "It's going to come down to a matter of minutes. The guys who perform the best will play the most, and a scrimmage like this is a good way to measure that because we don't have any games for a while."

Jason Carter was particularly impressive, scoring a scrimmage-high 32 points, including eight 3-pointers.

The scrimmage was split into two separate 20-minute halves. The first half featured the five starters (Campbell, Martin, Carl English, Vaidotas Peciukas and Haim Shimonovich) against the five top reserves (Carter, Michael Kuebler, Ikaika Alama-Francis, Tony Akpan and Milos Zivanovic).

Led by Carter's 16 points and three assists, the reserves won that half, 33-22.

The result so infuriated Wallace that he moved Carter and Akpan in for Campbell and Martin for the second half.

Carter again scored 16 to lead the new lineup to a 53-32 rout in the second half.

"I've been putting up extra shots after practice, working on my form," said Carter, a 5-foot-10 junior. "I want to prove to (Wallace) that I want to play. I don't like to sit and watch."

Akpan contributed 12 points, four rebounds and four assists in the two halves.

"It's like Coach tells us all the time, we have to make each other better," Akpan said. "I have to practice against these guys every day. I want to bring out the best in them and them bring out the best in me."

Campbell, the senior captain, apparently got the message. He scored 21 points in 20 minutes in the second half.

Shimonovich had 18 points and 11 rebounds; English had 21 points and eight rebounds, even though he was removed for 10 minutes of the first half by Wallace for "being a one-man offense."

The 'Bows will play a home exhibition game against Hawai'i-Hilo next Monday. They will then play a road game at San Diego State on Dec. 14.

"We know this will help us," Shimonovich said. "But I think we would all rather play against somebody else in a real game."