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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, January 28, 2005

Nash shot life back into 'Bows

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If there was a living, breathing poster player for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team's recent lean, mean times, it was young Bobby Nash.

The much-celebrated hero of UH's Rainbow Classic tournament championship after the buzzer-beater victory over Oral Roberts a month ago, Nash's jump shot soon left him and, so too, eventually did his place in the starting lineup.

So, if there was a player on the Stan Sheriff Center court last night that knew full well the depth of the Rainbow Warriors' pain and felt the compelling urgency for a victory, it was No. 33.

Especially after he missed two free-throw attempts with 34.8 seconds remaining in regulation last night that might have spared UH overtime against Rice.

So when fate — and a pass from Jake Sottos — delivered into his hands a shot at redemption, Nash knew better than most what was at stake and made the most of it with a disbelieving 21-footer that banked in with 15.5 seconds left in overtime and followed it up with a free throw to help deliver a 75-72 victory over Rice.

"I don't think anybody wanted that (losing) feeling, where we worked so hard and lost again," Nash said. "We weren't having any of it tonight. Everybody has that mindset that, 'hey, we can do this; we can pull it out.'

"And, luckily, I hit the shot, it went in and we did (win)," Nash said.

After being, at times, unable to buy a bucket in close, late agonizing losses to Fresno State, Nevada, Louisiana Tech, Texas-El Paso and Boise State — have we left anybody out — Nash delivered what the remnants of a crowd of 4,810 had begun to think might be beyond these 'Bows.

Before Nash dared to reopen his eyes after the shot, it wasn't just his mother, Domelynne, from her seat in section AA that immediately grasped the significance of the shot. "He really needed that one, they all did," she said.

"He would have had to live with himself for missing those free throws," said Riley Wallace, the UH coach. "He missed two and Jake missed one and that would have been the game down the stretch and that will kill you. But he (Nash) bounced back and hit a prayer. He was almost standing out of bounds when he hit it."

If it was the shot that brought hope and eventually salvation to the 'Bows after three consecutive losses and five setbacks in their last seven games, it was also a debilitating punch to the Owls.

"It was incredible," Rice's Michael Harris said. "I was watching (the shot) the whole way and thought it was gonna be an airball, to be honest with you. Then it hit the backboard and went in and there went our confidence."

The question, now, is: What does it mean for the 'Bows' confidence. The endline-to-endline grins said it should mean a lot. That, for all that went into it, it should be the kind of shot that a season could turn on.

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