Rainbow Warriors try to put tough loss behind

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team has fallen.

"We can't hang our heads over this because we still have to go out and win games," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. Advertiser library photo • March 15, 2001

The Rainbow Warriors have three weeks and five more Western Athletic Conference games to find out.

A 55-54 loss to San Jose State on Saturday was both heartbreaking and streak-breaking for Hawai'i.

Keith West's driving layup with 3.5 seconds remaining brought a stunning halt to UH's 24-game winning streak in the Stan Sheriff Center. It was the fourth-longest home winning streak in NCAA Division I, and the second-longest in UH history — two shy of the school record.

The 'Bows will get a chance to start a new one Wednesday when they host Nevada at 7 p.m.

"We'll keep that streak going in our mind," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "We can't hang our heads over this because we still have to go out and win games."

Hawai'i is 13-8 overall and in seventh place in the WAC at 6-7.

If the regular season were to end today, the 'Bows would be seeded seventh for the WAC Tournament. That means they would have to participate in the dreaded "play-in" games for the bottom four teams in the conference. Last year, Hawai'i won the tournament as the No. 1 seed.

But in this wacky WAC season, the 'Bows still have a mathematical shot at the regular-season championship. Of course, it would take some amazing results down the stretch — for starters, UH would have to win its final five WAC games and Fresno State would need to lose its four remaining games.

More realistically, the 'Bows just want to improve their seeding for the WAC Tournament, which they have won the past two seasons.

"There's a bunch of teams right there," Wallace said. "These last few games are going to be important for everybody."

In truth, the loss to San Jose State was significant. The Spartans have only three WAC victories this season. Two have come against Hawai'i.

Coincidence or not, UH star guard Carl English had his two worst games of the season in the two losses to the Spartans.

On Saturday, he shot 3-of-15 from the field, including 0-of-7 from 3-point range, and finished with nine points. He scored six in a 79-67 loss at San Jose, Calif., last month. Those are his only single-digit scoring games this season.

English entered the game as the WAC's leading scorer at 20.6 points per game. He is now tied with SMU's Quinton Ross at 20.0 per game.

"He'll be back," Wallace said. "He had a couple of bad games, he's allowed those."

Even with English struggling, the 'Bows had their chances. They lost the lead twice in the final minute of the game.

As West boldly stated after the game: "These (Hawai'i) guys are so overrated."

Mark Campbell's putback of his own missed shot went in the basket, but was ruled to come a fraction of a second after the final horn. Television replays confirmed it, but also showed a wide-open Tony Akpan sprinting to the basket when Campbell put up his first shot.

"It's hard to tell the time in that situation," Wallace said of Campbell's decision to shoot rather than pass. "I feel as good with Mark taking that shot as anybody."

The Spartans helped create the tight finish by slowing the pace of the game, stalling for 15 to 20 seconds on each offensive possession. Because of that, Wallace elected to use only one substitute — Akpan — during the game.

"You're standing around; nobody was winded or tired," Wallace said.

Campbell, English and Michael Kuebler — who had a sprained left ankle — played the entire 40 minutes. Reserve guard Jason Carter also had a sprained ankle, but was available if needed.

"All we can do is put this behind us," Kuebler said.