Riley Wallace is proclaiming tonight "Senior Night Sellout" for a reason, and it has nothing to do with him.

Senior co-captains Ahmet Gueye and Matt Lojeski will play their final home games of the regular-season tonight when the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team hosts Boise State.

Wallace will also be honored tonight because it will be his final home game as head coach of the Rainbow Warriors.

"I really wish so much of the attention wasn't on me because if there's two seniors who deserve the attention, and who deserve to play in front of a sellout crowd, it's these two," Wallace said.

Indeed, Gueye and Lojeski have been the unquestioned leaders of the team this season, in the boxscores and the locker room.

"If we need a big bucket inside, we go to Ahmet; if we need a shot from the outside, we go to Lojo," junior forward P.J. Owsley said. "And we have the confidence that they'll make the shot every time."

Gueye, a 6-foot-8 starting center, is averaging 12.3 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds per game, despite playing the entire season with a right knee that is still recovering from surgery last March.

"He's a warrior, no doubt," Wallace said.

Gueye will also be remembered as one of the best defenders during the Wallace era. He ranks fourth on Hawai'i's career list with 123 blocked shots, including 58 this season.

"I would say I tried hard every time I stepped on the court," Gueye said. "But I wish I could have done more."

That type of attitude — and his last name — made him a fan favorite.

After every blocked shot or key basket Gueye got during his career, the Stan Sheriff Center crowd chanted "Geeeee!"

"The first time I heard it, I thought there's no way that could be for me," he said. "I was trying to figure out what they were saying. But now, every time I hear it, it makes me feel so good."

Lojeski said he will remember Gueye as "a guy who plays his (butt) off and never backed down from anybody."

Lojeski, a 6-6 starting shooting guard, has quietly emerged as one of the best all-around talents in Hawai'i basketball history. He leads the team in scoring with 16.0 points per game, assists with 4.6 per game, field goal shooting at 53.6 percent, and steals with 48. He is also second on the team in rebounding with 5.6 per game. For good measure, he was often assigned to defend the opposing team's best shooter.

"You don't realize how much he means to the team until you look across the board at all those categories," Wallace said.

Lojeski said: "I like knowing that I improved from last year, and made my teammates better. I'm not just standing at the 3-point line and shooting. I want to do everything I can to help the team win."

Gueye said he recalls Lojeski's memorable 33-point performance in a victory over Creighton in the championship game of the Rainbow Classic.

"I've never seen anything like that; on TV, maybe, when I used to watch Michael Jordan," Gueye said.

Gueye and Lojeski both made an immediate impact as junior college transfers. In their first game as 'Bows last season, they both started in an 84-62 upset of No. 4-ranked Michigan State.

"I'll never forget that," Lojeski said. "It was my first Division I game, and I really didn't know what to expect. It was an unreal atmosphere, and then we came out and beat the No. 4 team in the country."

They'd like to end their Hawai'i careers in similar stunning fashion.

"We can still make a run and win that (WAC) tournament," Lojeski said. "That would be the best way to go out."

The seedings for next week's WAC Tournament at Las Cruces, N.M., will be determined after tonight's game.

UH is 17-12 overall and 7-8 in the WAC. Boise State is 16-12 and 8-7.

Interestingly enough, both Gueye and Lojeski took circuitous routes to get to Hawai'i.

Gueye was born and raised in Dakar, Senegal, before attending Salt Lake Community College (Utah).

"I'm going to miss this place so much," he said.

Lojeski was raised in Racine, Wis., and attended Eastern Wyoming College his freshman and sophomore seasons.

"It was snowing all the time, freezing cold," he said. "After two years of that, I like to think I kind of deserved to play in a place like this."

NOTES

About 3,000 tickets remain for tonight's game at the 10,300-seat Stan Sheriff Center.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.