Rice rolls by ailing 'Bows

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

HOUSTON — Just as the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team made its lonely walk out of Autry Court last night, it started to rain.

Rice's Jason McKreith, right, reached in against Carl English of Hawai'i during yesterday's WAC game. Associated Press

The 'Bows certainly had no luck in a 75-58 loss at Rice yesterday.

"We weren't at full strength and it showed," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "I thought we fought hard with what we had, but we didn't have it at the end."

As a result, the 'Bows find themselves in an unenviable position as the Western Athletic Conference enters its final week of the regular season.

Hawai'i dropped to 15-10 overall and remained in seventh place in the WAC at 7-9. The 'Bows need to win their final two home games — against Boise State on Thursday and then Texas-El Paso on Saturday — and have Louisiana Tech lose its final game against Southern Methodist to climb out of seventh place.

If not, Hawai'i will have to participate in the "play-in" games on the opening day of the WAC Tournament, which is scheduled for March 11-15 at Tulsa, Okla.

Rice improved to 18-8 overall 10-6 in the conference.

Playing without starting center Haim Shimonovich, the 'Bows were dominated inside. Shimonovich, a 6-foot-10 junior, did not suit up because of a severely-sprained right ankle.

What's more, leading scorer Carl English had lingering flu-like symptoms and "still wasn't himself," according to Wallace.

Still, the 'Bows put up a valiant effort, led by forward Phil Martin. Hawai'i cut a 19-point second half deficit to two before fading in the closing minutes.

Martin, a 6-foot-8 junior, had his best game as a 'Bow with career-highs of 23 points and 14 rebounds.

"Carl was sick and we lose Haim, so guys gotta step up," Martin said. "There's no excuses, we should have done better."

Rice's Jason McKreith looks for an avenue of escape from the defense of Hawai'i's Milos Zivanovic during their WAC game. Associated Press

The Owls, led by 6-9 center Yamar Diene, scored 20 of their 28 field goals from within five feet of the basket, including five dunks. Rice also out-rebounded Hawai'i, 41-28. It was the largest rebounding deficit this season for the 'Bows.

Diene led Rice with 24 points and 12 rebounds. He, too, established career-highs in both categories.

"(Rice) didn't run and push the tempo as much as I thought they would," Wallace said. "But they really pounded us inside."

Milos Zivanovic, a 6-11 freshman, had a forgettable first start of his UH career in place of Shimonovich. He finished with three rebounds and did not score.

Nkeruwem "Tony" Akpan split playing time with Zivanovic, but he finished with just two points and one rebound before fouling out.

"I think it's pretty clear how much Haim means to us," Wallace said. "If he's in there, (Diene) probably doesn't get that many points because Haim has such a big body and he's tough to push around."

Rice head coach Willis Wilson said he was aware that Shimonovich would not play, but that did not alter his game plan.

"Our plan the last several basketball games has been to keep going inside," Wilson said.

Diene had 13 points and five rebounds in the first half to help the Owls build a 38-25 lead at intermission. He added six points early in the second half to push the lead to 49-30 with 15:45 remaining.

During a timeout, Wallace said he inspired his team by "calling on their manhood a little bit."

It worked.

Led by Martin and reserve guard Jason Carter, the 'Bows chipped away at the lead over the next nine minutes. Carter hit two 3-pointers and Martin scored seven points during that span when Hawai'i out-scored the Owls, 26-9.

"The key was putting in (Carter)," Wallace said. "He brought a lot of defensive pressure and sparked the whole thing."

Michael Kuebler's driving shot cut the Rice lead to 58-56 with 6:42 remaining. Hawai'i had possession of the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead with a 3-pointer, but English missed an off-balance shot.

"We just wanted to bring intensity and play them tough," said Carter, who scored all eight of his points in the second half. "We had a terrible loss against Tulsa (on Thursday); it was embarrassing."

But Hawai'i's rally was also sparked by a full-court defense, and the 'Bows apparently used all their energy during that surge.

"It was extremely draining," said Martin, who played 39 of the game's 40 minutes. "We slowed down slowly but surely."

In the final six minutes of the game, Rice outscored Hawai'i 17-2, including a 15-0 run that put the game out of reach.

Carter's reverse layup with 1:04 remaining stopped a 5 1/2-minute scoring drought by Hawai'i. The 'Bows shot 1 of 12 from the field in the final six minutes.

Overall, Hawai'i shot just 35.6 percent from the field (21 of 59), including just 25 percent (5 of 20) from 3-point range. That percentage could have been even worse were it not for Martin's 9-of-14 shooting.

English, who is battling SMU's Quinton Ross for the WAC scoring title, once again played with flu-like symptoms. He finished with 14 points, but shot just 4 of 15 from the field, including 2 of 8 from 3-point range.

"He was better than he was (against Tulsa)," Wallace said. "But he was still missing shots he normally makes, so you could tell he still wasn't himself."

Senior point guard Mark Campbell contributed just two points, but had eight assists, four rebounds and five steals.

In the past three days, Hawai'i has suffered its two biggest losses of the season (on Thursday, Tulsa beat UH, 76-51). Wallace, however, did not appear overly concerned.

"I hate to say this, but at least we have an excuse," he said. "Haim went down and Carl was sick. We get those two guys back, and we're an entirely different team. So we'll come home with our heads up. We feel like once we get our full deck, we'll be tough to beat."

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