By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When the San Jose State airballs soared errantly and often, missing everything — and missing it badly — the crowd snickered.

And when a Spartan inadvertently backed over the ballboys, taking a pratfall, the amused Stan Sheriff Center gathering struggled to barely stifle a laugh.

From an opening 32-10 run to the merciful final horn, what the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team did to the overmatched Spartans in a 71-46 blowout last night was the Funk & Wagnall's definition of a laugher.

One punctuated with soaring, choreographed dunks, over-the-horizon 3-pointers and the basketball version of a first-round technical knockout.

A 19-1 Rainbow Warrior run built on suffocating defense and opportunistic offense rendered this one anti-climactic early in the first half, leaving the crowd of 7,676 to find its amusement where it could.

"I knew it was something special when they (the Spartans) had only 10 points at one point in the game (8:36 remaining in the first half) and we had 30," guard Mike McIntyre said. "I hoped we could keep it up because I wanted to see how this would look (and) how far we could go with this."

The answer was: most of the 40 minutes en route to their 21st victory against four losses (12-2 conference). The Rainbows did pretty much as they pleased, when they pleased.

On a night when crowd favorite Lance Takaki was summoned to rare first-half duty, the only drama was reserved for whether UH coach Riley Wallace would completely empty his bench. And, to the joy of the crowd as much as the cheering starters who happily took their seats, he did.

This was a feel-good night all around for the Rainbows and their fans, the welcome laugher before the coming showdown. The night of mirth before the rapidly approaching March Madness.

For 21-4 (13-2 conference) Tulsa comes to town Thursday night, bringing with it a half-game lead in the Western Athletic Conference standings and, perhaps, the path to the regular season title.

This is where the Rainbows begin to define their season and when all they have accomplished in this season of wonder adds to the growing pot. This is what they have waited for and where they can prove themselves.

It was, having learned the hard way in a 57-53 loss at San Jose last month, why they were focused on their game and intense on defense last night. And why, despite the Spartans' 8-17 (3-10 WAC) record coming in that San Jose had their full attention.

"We took it as a personal thing that we were going to come out here and pressure 'em (on defense)," McIntyre said.

"Every game now means the NCAA for us," Carl English said turning serious of tone, underlining the mission that the Rainbows have come to embrace.

"Anything else than an (NCAA Tournament) berth right now and we'd be disappointed in ourselves," English said. "So, we're striving for that. I think we're ready."

Indeed, on this night, the smiles that gave way to determination said it all.