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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, November 22, 2003

Warriors miss shots at victory

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

Nobody said life without Carl English was going to be easy for the University of Hawai'i-Manoa men's basketball team, but who knew the first night was going to be this much of a struggle?

In their first game A.E. — after English — the Rainbow Warriors missed his leadership, missed his shooting touch and, most of all, missed his points in a 57-51 season-opening loss to UC Santa Barbara last night.

Wherever their All-WAC former teammate was in his professional basketball odyssey after leaving with a year of remaining eligibility, it suddenly seemed very far from Manoa.

Indeed, the Rainbows didn't figure to replace English's 19.6 points a game right off the bat, but seven or eight would have been a nice start to the season.

This transition from a star-guided team to one that finds its strength in numbers won't be accomplished overnight, much as we might have wished it could.

Before the game, if you'd told the Rainbows they'd hold UCSB, the defending Big West champions, to 57 points, they'd have taken it as an omen of a good night.

"Definitely," said Michael Kuebler. And, the Warriors had their moments on defense. But, then, who knew the Rainbows were going to manage just 51 points themselves? Only once last season — on the road at San Diego State — were they held to as few points or less.

How they went about it this time, hitting just two of their last 14 field goals, was almost as curious as their 4 of 17 labors from the 3-point line.

Phil Martin (12 points) and Julian Sensley (10), gave the Rainbows some inside support, but there was no firepower from outside and very little patience in looking for it.

An in-house pizza promotion promised free goodies if the Rainbows made seven 3-pointers. The goodies were never in danger.

Surveying the boxscore afterward, UH coach Riley Wallace went down the line shaking his head, "(Jason) Carter two points ... Kuebler five ... (Logan) Lee zero ... (Jake) Sottos zero ...

"That's four guards — and seven points," Wallace said. "And, that's not gonna get it done."

Nor on a night when the Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,473 waited for somebody, anybody, to step up and fill some of the void, was there anybody to be found. And, Wallace just about emptied his bench looking.

The closest anybody would come was 6-foot-6 freshman Bobby Nash, just five months out of Iolani School. Nash, for all his youth, had none of the hesitancy of his teammates, confidently hitting two of three shots, half of UH's 3-pointers, for six points in five minutes of playing time.

"Nash's play was the only bright spot of the whole night," Wallace conceded.

Now, the 'Bows have two more days to find some other ones before taking on Santa Clara in the opener of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.