Boise State routs Hawai'i, 74-57

By Jon P. Brown
Special to The Advertiser

Boise State's Coby Karl is closely guarded by Hawai'i's Michael Kuebler and Jeff Blackett. Associated Press

Boise State slashed inside in the first half to set the tone, then broke the Rainbow Warriors' hearts at every turn in a 74-57 Western Athletic Conference victory at The Pavilion at Boise State yesterday.

"We were able to make a couple runs at them, but we'd break it to 10 and we couldn't hold them," UH guard Michael Kuebler said after the loss in front of 5,033 fans.

Hawai'i (17-6 overall, 9-4 WAC) began a three-game road swing with a crucial loss. The 'Bows are now in a three-way tie atop the standings with Rice and Texas-El Paso.

Hawai'i faces UTEP on Monday after playing Southern Illinois late Saturday night in the non-conference ESPN Bracket Buster.

Yesterday, the 'Bows took their worst tumble of the season without the services of starting center Haim Shimonovich and with a gutsy-but-limited contribution from forward Julian Sensley.

"That's not an excuse," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said repeatedly.

But it might be a pretty good explanation for Boise State's dominance.

Shimonovich was in Hawai'i nursing a sprained right knee, and Sensley was hampered after having dental work done.

"Sensley had a tooth pulled today," Wallace said. "I should have never let them touch him on game day."

Sensley finished with nine points and seven rebounds. But he only grabbed one offensive rebound, and BSU (16-8, 8-6) outscored UH 40-16 in the paint.

Jason Ellis grabbed 13 rebounds and Aaron Haynes 12 to lead the Broncos to a 40-29 advantage on the boards.

Haynes also scored his team's first 13 points as BSU dominated the inside without the 6-10, 275-pound Shimonovich to worry about. The 6-7 Haynes finished with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

The Broncos jumped to a 32-18 lead at intermission, and never allowed Hawai'i to get closer than five in the second half.

"On our defensive rotation, they scored at will," Wallace said, adding that most of the points came from the area where Shimonovich normally would rotate. "We worked on it. The guys just didn't do it."

One player who did do it for UH was Vaidotas Peciukas. Although he hadn't seen much action in recent games, the 6-7 junior came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points. "I just wanted to get in the game and try to get us back into it," he said.

"He came out of nowhere," BSU head coach Greg Graham said. "He came in and almost got them back into the game."

Kuebler added 12 points, and Jeff Blackett — making his first start of the season in place of Shimonovich — had 10 points and seven rebounds for Hawai'i.

Wallace said after the game that Shimonovich would join the team for the game at UTEP.