Rainbows wrap up top seed in WAC tourney

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

FRESNO, Calif. — Even though Savo-less, the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team was marvelous.

Carl English leaps into Haim Shiminovich's arms after Hawai'i topped Fresno State in the regular-season finale. Associated Press

A sellout crowd of 10,220 at Selland Arena came to honor Bulldogs' senior Melvin Ely, but it was the 'Bows who stole the show with another uncanny shooting performance in what has already been an uncanny shooting season.

"How can I say I'm surprised when this team has done it all year long," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "Every time they get down, they get right back up. There's a reason why I keep saying this team is special. If you saw this game, you know why."

The 'Bows won without star guard Predrag Savovic, who sat on the bench in street clothes because of lingering pain in his lower back from muscle spasms he suffered in a 79-69 loss at Nevada on Thursday.

Playing in Savovic's shooting guard position, sophomore Carl English scored a career-high 33 points, including a mind-boggling 27 in the first half.

Senior Mike McIntyre, playing extended minutes because of Savovic's absence, added a career-high 27 points, including seven of UH's team-record tying 14 3-pointers.

"We had to pick up the slack for Savo," English said. "He's a tough guy to replace, but we stepped up to the challenge, me and Mike."

McIntyre's final 3-pointer of the game came with 33.4 seconds remaining in the game, giving the 'Bows an 82-76 lead.

Fresno State's Damon Jackson responded with a 3-pointer with 9.9 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 82-79. After a missed free throw by McIntyre — "I was thinking championship," he explained — Fresno State could not get a clean shot off in the final frantic seconds.

"That buzzer went off and it was like nothing else in the world mattered for the next few minutes," UH sophomore forward Phil Martin said.

With that, Hawai'i improved to 24-5 overall and 15-3 in the WAC. Technically, the 'Bows are considered co-champions with Tulsa, which also finished 15-3 in the conference. Still, it was only Hawai'i's second WAC championship in 23 seasons in the conference — the 'Bows also won a co-championship in 1997.

However, UH beat Tulsa twice this season, and will thus be the top seed in the WAC Tournament, which will be held Tuesday through Saturday at Tulsa, Okla.

Hawai'i, which has never been the top seed for the WAC Tournament, will play a quarterfinal game on Thursday. The 'Bows will play the winner of Tuesday's play-in game between Rice and San Jose State.

"I feel like we still need to win two more games to make sure we get in (to the NCAA Tournament) as an at-large," Wallace said. "But this win has us feeling damn good going in to the (WAC) tournament."

The 'Bows did it by shooting over Fresno State's famed "amoeba" zone defense. Hawai'i shot 14-of-32 from 3-point range, with McIntyre (7-of-14) and English (5-of-9) doing most of the sharpshooting.

Wallace said it came as no surprise that Fresno State head coach Jerry Tarkanian opted to stay in a zone defense the entire game.

"Our offense would pull Ely away from the basket if they went to a (man-to-man defense)," Wallace said. "So we just had to be patient, find our shooters and make our 3s."

Point guard Mark Campbell went scoreless, yet played near-flawless. He recorded 10 assists with just one turnover.

"The best way to beat a zone is by shooting from the outside," Campbell said. "We have great shooters, all I had to do was find them. And when a guy gets on a roll, you find that guy as much as you can."

In the first half, that was the 6 foot 5 English. By halftime, he had 27 points — one shy of his career-high for an entire game — including 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range.

"I was feeling pretty good and everything was dropping," English said. "I was going inside, outside; I was playing my whole game."

The Bulldogs led by as much as 36-29 in the first half, but Hawai'i responded with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 42-38 lead. English (7) and McIntyre (6) combined to score all of the points during the surge.

Perhaps fittingly, the first half ended in a 44-44 tie. The first half featured three lead changes and four ties.

With the Fresno State zone sending two defenders on English throughout the second half, McIntyre took over. He scored 16 in the second half, including 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range.

"With Savovic out, I was hoping (Hawai'i) would be down a little bit," Tarkanian said. "But McIntyre probably had a better game than Savovic would have had. McIntyre was unbelievable in the second half. Some of those shots he hit were well past the NBA (3-point line)."

McIntyre's biggest play may have come in the low post. With the shot clock winding down in the final minute, Martin put up an errant shot that was rebounded by McIntyre. That allowed UH to reset its offense and run an additional 30 seconds off the clock before setting up McIntyre's final 3-pointer of the game.

"I knew I was going to have a good shooting night over here," McIntyre said. "Just the feeling and the emotion riding on this game, I felt good."