Road unkind to Warriors

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

RUSTON, La. — There really is nothing fun about this town.

Louisiana Tech's Bruce Edwards gets off a shot over the defense of Hawai'i's Carl English. Associated Press

A crowd of 2,627 at the Thomas Assembly Center watched the Rainbow Warriors fall to 13-6 overall and 6-5 in the Western Athletic Conference. All of UH's losses this season have come on the road — the 'Bows are 1-6 away from home, and yesterday was their fifth consecutive road loss.

Louisiana Tech improved to 8-9 overall and 5-5 in the WAC with its third consecutive victory.

"The hard part is that we've come so close," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "We'll be right there to the end. At home, we come up with (the win) and on the road we don't. That's what makes it frustrating."

This one may have been the most frustrating of them all.

LaTech center Zach Johnson, a 58 percent free-throw shooter, converted two free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining to provide the winning points.

On the previous possession, Hawai'i had the ball with a 65-64 lead, but turned it over when Carl English was called for an offensive foul away from the ball.

"That's a bad call from what I could tell," Wallace said. "You hate to see it come down to that."

Hawai'i had one last possession after Johnson's free throws, but English's off-balance, reverse-layup attempt from under the basket was tipped away by Johnson as the buzzer sounded.

That frantic final minute epitomized a back-and-forth game described by Wallace as "blue-collar." In the second half alone, the lead changed 10 times and neither team got ahead by more than five points.

"This game was ours," English said. "We had them right where we wanted them until those last 30 seconds."

Ultimately, LaTech's big men were too big for the 'Bows.

Antonio Meeking, a 6-foot-8, 265-pound forward, lived up to his billing as the "Shaq of the WAC" with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Johnson, a 6-10, 288-pound center, contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds.

"Their big guys killed us," Wallace said. "They got 40 points and 22 boards from those two guys. That's way too many because we're not a small team."

Hawai'i's big men — 6-10 center Haim Shimonovich and 6-8 forward Phil Martin — combined for six points on 3-of-11 shooting, and eight rebounds.

"Their plan was to pound us and pound us inside," Martin said. "We were giving it our all, but that can wear you down."

Meeking got 19 of his points and seven of his rebounds in the second half. Overall, he shot 12 of 21 from the field and 3 of 6 on free throws. In two games against Hawai'i this season (UH beat La

Tech, 57-53, at the Stan Sheriff Center last month), Meeking recorded 50 points and 22 rebounds.

"He's tough, but we still gave him too much," Wallace said. "I don't think we made him work too hard for some of those shots he made."

The 'Bows took a 33-32 lead at halftime, thanks mostly to the shooting of Michael Kuebler. He scored 15 in the first half, including all 11 of the points during an 11-2 surge that turned an 18-11 deficit into a 22-20 UH lead.

"I thought he carried us for some stretches," Wallace said. "Because Carl wasn't into it tonight, especially on the defensive end."

Kuebler finished with 27 points on 8-of-17 shooting. He was 3 of 6 from 3-point range and made all eight of his free throws. English contributed 15 points, but it came on 4-of-13 shooting. He also grabbed eight rebounds, but played just 30 minutes — six below his average time.

"I felt like we did a good job on English, but then Kuebler goes out and gets 27," LaTech head coach Keith Richard said. "They are so tough to guard. You relax for a second and they spank you."

Only seven players saw action last night for the 'Bows, and the two reserves provided key contributions: Nkeruwem "Tony" Akpan had 10 points, three blocked shots and two rebounds; Vaidotas Peciukas had seven points and three rebounds.

"The frustrating part is not that it's close, but because we're losing," Akpan said. "It don't matter how close — any loss is frustrating."

UH point guard Mark Campbell did not score, but grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds and passed for four assists while playing the entire 40 minutes.

"We just need somebody to step up when it counts," Wallace said. "Like at the end there, we had our chances. We just didn't come up with the plays at the end."

Shimonovich's only two points of the game came with 1:18 remaining, when he drained a 15-foot jump shot to put Hawai'i ahead, 65-64.

LaTech's winning play started with Bruce Edwards dribbling through the middle of the Hawai'i defense. That forced Shimonovich to challenge Edwards, who then passed the ball to a wide-open Johnson under the basket.

Shimonovich fouled Johnson hard, although no intentional foul was assessed. Hawai'i tried to rattle Johnson by calling two timeouts, but he still managed to sink both shots.

"Let's put it like this," Richard said of Johnson's free-throw shooting, "I told him to make the two (shots), just to be positive. But then I went over three scenarios to get us ready (if he missed)."

Hawai'i entered the game with a 46.8 shooting percentage, but shot just 39.7 percent from the field last night.

Led by Johnson and Meeking, the Bulldogs won the rebounding battle, 41-39.

In a hushed UH locker room after the game, Martin perhaps put it best: "We played as tough a game as we could on the road and still came out with a one-point loss. I don't know who or what's against us on the road, but we need to figure it out somehow."