UH's Sottos was in zone of his own

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The designated "Zone Buster" for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team did his part, but the Rainbow Warriors still busted last night.

Hawai'i reserve Jake Sottos made six 3-pointers in last night's loss to Louisiana Tech. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We just didn't battle," Sottos said. "We didn't hustle the whole time and they wanted it more than we did."

With the Bulldogs playing a zone defense for the entire game, Sottos was the only consistent offensive threat for Hawai'i.

He shot 7 of 14 from the field overall, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range. He also grabbed a career-high five rebounds.

"Coming off the other night, I felt real good," he said. "And at practice again today, I felt good."

The last two games have been the two best of Sottos' career at Hawai'i. He scored 17 in a 71-59 victory over Southern Methodist on Thursday.

The 37 points in his last two games is more than the 30 he scored in his previous nine games this season.

"Jake did all right, but we're shooting 25 3's and that's way too many to put up," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said.

The 'Bows went 8 for 25 from 3-point range, with the players not named Sottos combining to go 2 for 13.

Wallace said Sottos was supposed to be part of a combination of ways to attack the LaTech zone. The 'Bows were supposed to get more passes into the low-post to draw the LaTech defense inside.

"We wanted that stuff in the middle and we wanted the guys to do something with the ball in the middle to force the action," Wallace said.

However, the Hawai'i big men were all out of rhythm. Center Chris Botez, forwards Julian Sensley and "Big Matt" Gipson and reserve Jeff Blackett combined to score just 21 points while shooting 9 of 26 from the field

Those four entered the game averaging a combined 37.8 points per game.

"If I was an opponent coming in, I would play zone, too," said Botez, who finished with eight points and eight rebounds.

Still, Sottos helped the 'Bows rally from an early seven-point deficit by scoring 14 in the first half, including four 3-pointers.

Wallace said he did not insert Sottos in the second half until there were around nine minutes remaining because he wanted to establish his low-post players.

"The 3-point shooting, that's not the answer," Wallace said. "The answer was to attack the zone from something other than 3-point shooting. The fans wanted to see us take (the 3-point shots) but so did Louisiana Tech."

In any case, Sottos has proved his worth in the last two games. He is now tied for the team lead with 17 3-pointers and leads the team with a 45.9 percentage from 3-point range.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.