Posted on: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Point has been point for 'Bows
| • | UTEP frustrates Rainbow Warriors |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
When Deonte Tatum's intended entry pass skipped out of bounds with 33 seconds left last night, sealing the University of Hawai'i's doom, it wasn't just another agonizingly close Western Athletic Conference defeat for a team that has already seen far too many of them this cursed season.
When the Rainbow Warriors, who remarkably had no turnovers until the 10 minute, 47 second mark of the second half, made all four of theirs in prime time, the last on a miscommunication, it wasn't just one of those frustrating nights.
The 71-67 loss to Texas-El Paso was a game that not only put the 'Bows on the brink of settling into the dreaded "play-in" game in next month's conference tournament but reminded them of how they have gotten to this precarious point.
Five points — one in a 71-70 loss at UTEP in January and four last night — are all that have separated the two teams this season. But they are indicative of why the Miners are 21-7 (11-4 WAC) and competing for a title while UH is 14-9 (6-8 in conference) and has lost two games in a row at home for the first time since 2000-01.
The Miners win the close games with Filiberto Rivera, the conference's best point guard, and the 'Bows lose them with a makeshift point guard by committee.
Rivera orchestrates victories, making big plays that win games and avoiding the errors that can lose them.
UH, left without a true and experienced point guard by the 11th-hour departure of Logan Lee on July 28, a month before school started, has to hope, hustle and pray.
We've seen the result time and again in a season where the 'Bows' losses have all come by six points or fewer. Eight times now the 'Bows have had reason to rue the curiously timed bailout by Lee, who is now redshirting at Texas A&M. But rarely was it more evident than last night; so stark was the contrast at the point.
This is no knock on Tatum, who the 'Bows were fortunate to get in August, or Matt Gibson or any of the shooting guards who have gamely tried to fill the role of point guard.
But watching Rivera run a game — and last night's 15-point, six-assist and no-turnover performance was a 37-minute virtuoso performance — was cruel and unusual punishment for the 'Bows who can only wonder, again, "What if?"
"Jake Sottos is such a great shooter and Matt Gibson is such a great shooter, if they had a point guard they'd probably be leading this league right now," Doc Sadler, the UTEP coach, said. "Because you look at the close games and the point guard is the difference in the close games.
"I think we got the best point guard in the league and that's why we're winning. He (Rivera) made the plays down the stretch."
It was a point driven home on the 'Bows yet again.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
