No letdown: 'Bows wouldn't let up

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

A letdown?

After all that was the University of Hawai'i's victory over Tulsa Thursday night; after all the high-fives and back slapping that accompanied the Rainbows' triumphant return to first place in the Western Athletic Conference, the question hung in the Stan Sheriff Center rafters as huge as the Tesoro blimp.

Following all the San Diego States and San Jose States that have risen up to bite UH teams over the years; after all the Rainbow teams that couldn't get up for the little ones, the concern was there.

So, on the heels of the showdown against the Golden Hurricane, would there be a show up for lowly Rice?

Even Riley Wallace, the UH coach admitted to some brief concern. "Concern? Yes, because you are a coach," Wallace said. "There's always the question."

The answer, however, would be a resounding "No!"

And it would not be long in coming in what was, at 79-50, a most resounding of routs.

Almost as fast as you could say Newfoundland, its only Division I star, Carl English, put the Rainbows well on the way to settling the issue with three 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes, 25 seconds for an eight point (14-6) lead.

Whenever the Owls tried to edge back into it, there was English holding them off at 3-point distance, from where he would make good on five of seven attempts and score 17 of his game-high 21 points in the first half.

This would be English's parting gift to the three seniors, Mindaugas Burneika, Mike McIntyre and Predrag Savovic. The fans would later give them the ritual lei treatment. English gave them a night without worry to take their deserved bows.

"I just didn't want us to have a letdown to start the game," English said. "We couldn't lose on Senior Night."

And they wouldn't. Not if a crowd of 9,010 could help it. "The fans wouldn't let us be flat," Wallace said.

Not with all that was riding on this game and, indeed, every game from here on out in this expanding season of wonder.

Not when these Rainbows have set their goals at such high levels and taken dead aim at a legacy season. "We wanted to win all of our (WAC) home games, we want to win the WAC, we want to go to the NCAA." McIntyre said.

One by one they are checking them off. For starters this was their ninth and last WAC home victory, the first perfect conference home season in 23 seasons of WAC membership. It was also victory No. 23 against four losses, matching the third highest win total in school history with at least three games remaining.

It was accomplished last night with a "hunger" that Rice coach Willis Wilson could only marvel at an wish for his own youthful team. "When you've got guys on your team who are 23, 24 years old and guys who have been around in enough big games, you're not going to have a letdown. They're just not the type of a team that is going to have (one)."

Indeed, as Wallace would put it afterward, "I shouldn't have (worried) because this team wouldn't allow itself to have a letdown."

Not here and certainly not now.