Referees' calls frustrate Hawai'i

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

BOISE, Idaho — Rewind, play. Rewind, play. Rewind, play.

UH's Tony Akpan tries to block a shot by Boise's Kostas Avgerinos. Associated Press

In particular, the UH coaches were trying to decipher several controversial calls by the officials late in last night's, 65-63, overtime loss to Boise State at The Pavilion.

"I can't figure out how they make those calls when they did," UH head coach Riley Wallace said.

The first came with 28.7 seconds remaining in regulation and UH protecting a 55-53 lead. UH junior guard Carl English was called for an offensive foul after bumping with Boise State's Bryan Defares.

It gave the Broncos' possession of the ball and a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime.

"No push off, not even close," English said. "I don't mind if I take a bad shot and miss it in that situation, but to have a referee decide it before I even get a shot off is tough to take."

What's more, two separate officials had different calls on that play. Terry Christman, who was closest to the play, indicated a foul on Defares. At the same time, Mike Reed came running in from the baseline to call the offensive foul on English.

After a discussion between Christman and Reed, the foul was assessed on English.

Boise State head coach Greg Graham was sure that he saw Reed make the first call.

"I'm not sure how they worked it out, but I saw (Reed) make the call first and that's what stood," Graham said.

It led to another controversial call on Boise State's ensuing possession.

After running the clock down to five seconds, Booker Nabors drove through the middle of the UH defense and missed an open layup.

Aaron Haynes grabbed the rebound and banked it back into the basket as the buzzer sounded. After a few seconds with no call from any of the three officials, Reed ran to the scorers' table and signaled for the basket to count.

"I guarantee a TV monitor would show it was a no-good basket," Wallace said. "There's no doubt in my mind that it was not good."

Graham was equally adamant the other way. "I thought it was clearly in. I didn't think there was any question about it because I was right there watching it."

Problem was, yesterday's game was not televised, locally or nationally. The only video available was on the arena jumbotron, and the replays from that were inconclusive because the clock can not be seen in the same frame as the last shot by Haynes.

The third controversial call was actually a non-call. Trailing 64-63 in the closing seconds of overtime, UH's Jason Carter threw a wild pass to the Boise State defense as he drove down the baseline. He claimed he was being pushed out of bounds by Boise State's Solomon Wyatt, although no foul was called.

"They call that one on Carl (English) and then they don't call this one," Wallace said.

Earlier in the game, UH senior captain Mark Campbell was assessed a technical foul for "arguing" a foul call.

"I didn't swear or anything," Campbell said. "I just asked why he called the foul on me. I'm the captain, and the refs usually allow me to talk, so I was confused when he blew his whistle for the (technical)."

Wallace said he will not file any official complaints with the Western Athletic Conference. "It's after the fact now," he said.

• Carter on call: Hawai'i guard Jason Carter came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting last night.

During the final 10 minutes of the first half, he accounted for all nine of Hawai'i's points. That stretch kept UH close (27-25) going into halftime.

"The guy who almost beat us today was Jason," Graham said. "He came in off the bench and energized them."

Carter, a 5-10 junior, was unsatisfied with his performance, saying "I was just trying to help, but I didn't come out ready to play. I gave up some big points (on defense)."

• Coming home: Yesterday was Hawai'i's fifth game in nine days. The 'Bows are scheduled to return to Honolulu today.

They will try to continue their 19-game home winning streak against Southern Methodist on Thursday.

• Butler's Archey: Butler's Darnell Archey broke the NCAA Division I record for consecutive free throws yesterday when he made his 74th in a row, breaking the record of 73 was set by Villanova's Gary Buchanan, whose streak ended on Feb. 12, 2001.

Archey, a senior guard, was 3-of-3 from the free throw line in a 68-65 victory over Illinois-Chicago and has made 76 in a row.

Archey tied the record against the University of Hawai'i in the title game of the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report