Posted on: Friday, December 24, 2004

Rainbows' bench had MVP week

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If you want to be honest about it, there probably shouldn't have been a "Most Valuable Player" award given for this 41st Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.

Not unless the all-inclusive inscription read, simply: "The Bench."

Maybe it was because they only had one plaque to go around. Or, after 40 years of history, perhaps nobody dared to break with the event's rich tradition.

Nothing against the University of Hawai'i's energizer and eventual MVP recipient, Matt Gibson, you understand, but while he was often their point man, the width and depth of "The Bench" was where the men's basketball team ultimately won this, its fourth consecutive tournament championship.

Fittingly, the Rainbow Warriors captured last night's championship game, 72-68, over Southern California the way they pretty much went about taking this whole four-day event: By the numbers and with their numbers.

They remained unbeaten in their eighth consecutive game much the way they went about earning victory No. 1 back before Thanksgiving.

With the welcome Matts out — forward Matt Gipson and guard Matt Gibson — plus some assistance from Jake Sottos and Milos Zivanovic for a combined 34 points and 12 rebounds, it was the reserves that carried the day and, especially in the end, the tournament.

Over the course of holding off Long Beach State, Oral Roberts and, finally, USC, "The Bench" went above and beyond, accounting for 93 of the 'Bows 181 points.

Last night it would be less than 4 minutes into the game when head coach Riley Wallace made his first of several moves, inserting "Big Matt" Gipson, who went on to 13 points plus a team-high nine rebounds. To be shortly followed by "Little Matt" Gibson, his team-high 16 points, Sottos with five points and Zivanovic with some important minutes in giving breathers to the big men.

"Big Matt" paid immediate dividends, scoring on a spin and shoot jumper just 15 seconds after his insertion, and following that with a put-back. "Little Matt" weighed in with 10 first-half points in 12 minutes of play.

But it was down the second-half stretch, where Gipson had eight points in the final 4 minutes, 47 seconds and Gibson added four clutch free throws in the last 34 seconds that sealed this eighth consecutive victory.

"The way they have played, I had confidence I could go to any or all of them anytime," Wallace said. "I can bring in anybody and know they will do the job."

And they did, time and again.

"Our bench was outstanding in this tournament," Wallace affirmed. "In fact, if you are going to give an MVP, its the bench. You've got to put the whole team out there. That's your MVP because everybody did their job, I thought."

The fact that the award that matters most, the championship trophy, remains in Manoa today is ample testament to that.

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