Posted on: Friday, January 16, 2004
Road games bring out the warrior in Blackett
| • | Hawai'i wins at SMU, 66-65 |
| • | Rainbow Wahine roll past So. Methodist |
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
DALLAS — Jeff Blackett is as much a road warrior as he is a Rainbow Warrior.
Blackett has emerged as a force on the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team's current road trip.
He scored 11 points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds in UH's 66-65 victory over Southern Methodist last night at Moody Coliseum.
"Even in junior college, I've always played better on the road it seems like," said Blackett, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who transferred to UH prior to this season from Salt Lake Community College (Utah). "I don't know why that is, but I guess it's still going."
In Hawai'i's two WAC road games — both wins — Blackett is averaging 15.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. In the first 12 games of the season, he was averaging 5.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
"He's getting his confidence," Wallace said.
In last Saturday's road victory over San Jose State, Blackett had a career-high 19 points and four rebounds.
• More reserve power: Senior center Paul Jesinskis also played a key role off the bench last night. He matched his season-high with seven points — all in the first half while starter Haim Shimonovich was in foul trouble.
• She's big in Texas, too: Yesterday's edition of the Dallas Morning News ran a two-page feature on Hawai'i golfer Michelle Wie. The article started on the top of page A-1 of the paper, accompanied by a large photograph.
Meanwhile, the preview story for the UH-SMU basketball game consisted of four paragraphs on the bottom corner of page 8 of the sports section.
