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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 12, 2007

Rainbows blast Bulldogs, 83-66

UH vs. Fresno State photo gallery

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's P.J. Owsley soars over Fresno State's Ja'vance Coleman to put up a shot in the first half. Owsley scored a career-high 12 points and was one of six Rainbow Warriors in double figures.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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It's amazing what some extra rest and good home cooking can do for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team.

After a disappointing road trip last week, the Rainbow Warriors once again transformed into winners at the Stan Sheriff Center with a surprisingly lopsided 83-66 victory over Fresno State last night.

"It's always lovely to come home," junior forward Bobby Nash said. "You get your own bed, you get good food — not eating at Burger King or something like that."

A crowd of 4,460 watched the 'Bows improve to 10-6 overall and 1-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Hawai'i is 8-1 at home this season and 2-5 everywhere else.

The Bulldogs saw their four-game winning streak end as they fell to 13-3 and 2-1.

Dominic Waters and P.J. Owsley each reached career-high point totals to highlight a balanced Hawai'i offense.

Six 'Bows reached double-figure points: Waters scored 15, Nash 14, Matt Lojeski 13, Owsley 12, Riley Luettgerodt 11, and Ahmet Gueye 10. It was the first time since the 2002-03 season that Hawai'i had six players reach double-figure points in a game.

"That's just being unselfish, sharing the ball, finding the open guy, and us hitting shots," Waters said. "If we hit shots like we did tonight, it will end up like this a lot more."

Gueye also grabbed eight rebounds, and Lojeski had six assists.

The 'Bows shot 50 percent from the field, out-rebounded the Bulldogs 41-37, passed for 20 assists, and committed a season-low 11 turnovers.

"Like we've said all year, when we play at our best, we can play with anybody," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "But if we slack off just a little bit, we become average in a hurry."

The 'Bows never slacked off at all last night.

Fresno State entered the game as the WAC's best defensive team, allowing an average of 61.9 points per game. The 83 points scored by Hawai'i were the most surrendered by the Bulldogs this season.

"Hawai'i was really good; they were very, very good," Fresno State head coach Steve Cleveland said. "That's the best I've ever seen them play this year, to be honest with you."

Hawai'i opened the game with an 8-0 lead, and never relinquished it, thanks in part to Fresno State's errant shooting. The Bulldogs missed their first 10 shots.

"I was watching warmups, and (Fresno State) shot nothing but 25-footers and made them," Wallace said. "It put a little bit of fear into me, I know that. But our guys stayed pretty calm.

"Our guys bought into the fact that they can shoot 3s and ... just about every shot in the first half was contested."

Fresno State got as close as 12-8, but Hawai'i broke it open with a 13-4 surge that increased the lead to 25-12 with 8:01 remaining in the first half.

The 'Bows then closed the half with a 12-3 run to take a 44-24 lead at intermission. The most telling statistic from the first half — besides the score — was Hawai'i's 27-10 rebounding edge.

"They just absolutely dominated the game for the first 20 minutes, and then continued in the first five to 10 minutes of the second half," Cleveland said. "You have nights like that. It had nothing to do with our preparation or practices or anything else. You have to give credit to Hawai'i. Everything they shot went in early on ... they just manhandled us."

The 'Bows said it was their preparation and practices that may have been the difference.

"The scout team prepared us this week," Nash said. "We were overly prepared for these guys and it showed tonight."

Waters, in particular, played a key role in the practices. In an effort to work on his offense, he volunteered to practice with the scout team this week.

"It played a big role, I think," the 6-foot-1 sophomore said. "I wanted to get my swagger back — back to playing basketball instead of thinking so much."

Waters shot 5 of 8 from the field, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, in 26 minutes off the bench.

"I thought Dominic Waters came in and really gave us a good lift with his offense," Wallace said.

Hawai'i increased the lead to as many as 28 points in the second half, and the final score was as close as the Bulldogs got after intermission.

Eddie Miller scored 13 points to lead Fresno State. The Bulldogs' top players — Dominic McGuire, Quinton Hosley and Ja'Vance Coleman — combined to shoot 6 of 29.

The Bulldogs shot a season-low 32.2 percent from the field. Fresno State, which entered the game averaging a WAC-best 9.6 3-pointers per game, went 8 of 32 from 3-point range.

The 'Bows will continue their WAC homestand against No. 19-ranked Nevada tomorrow.

"Now we got our work cut out," Wallace said. "You go from one of the best offensive teams in the league to the best team in the league, all-around."

Hawai'i played without senior guard John Wilder, who was suspended for academic reasons.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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