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The men win again! This time the victim was the SMU Mustangs,
who fell to our Rainbow's 83-74. The game was always close, but UH
ended up victorious by reaching down deep and pulling away during the
final minutes of the game.
Last game it was English's Haircut... This game's fashion statements
sported Savo with a chipped front tooth and McIntyre with stitches and a
soft cast on his arm. Seems McIntyre's arm collided with Savo's face
at practice. Isn't that just like Savo though? You just don't
do that to a guy like Predrag... He'll take a bite outta you, practice or
not. Now that's an intense workout.
These workouts are obviously paying off this year. This victory over
SMU has solidified the Rainbows first place WAC status (6-0) and brought
their record to 15-2 overall. This victory
is not only the ninth consecutive victory for the Bow's (longest winning
streak in UH history), it also leaves UH as the only undefeated WAC team.
Savo had 22, McIntyre nailed 17, English bagged 14, Burneika got 16,
and Shimonovich grabbed himself 10 (and big guy got 8 assists!). 5
players were in double figures, which means the ball was moving and being
distributed well. Balanced scoring and offense won this one.
Rebounds, however, were atrocious in the second half, and the defense was
a little more relaxed than it has been for the past few games (they
finally let somebody score more than 70!). Still, the extremely
well-balanced offense more than covered for any defensive shortcomings,
not to mention the record breaking 3 point fest.
It was definitely the night for treys. 14 three pointers were
scored in total, including a wild 'off the glass' 4 point play via a Savo
outside bomb. That's more than half of the total
points scored attributable to 3's! The team shot 14-27 from beyond the arc. 14 three
pointers in one game also shattered the previous school record. CPB donates $100
to a scholarship fund for each three pointer scored... This game cost them
big time! $1400 big ones going towards a noble cause.
The bottom line is that it was a very entertaining basketball game to
watch, as it featured two very talented teams going toe to toe. SMU
kept it real close for 45 minutes, only to let the hometown Bow's gain
momentum near the end. Who knows what will happen when these two
teams meet again at SMU on February 7th? This team was definitely
not a pushover, and the game could've gone either way.
On a side note... Do you recall the year (84 or 85) when Hawaii's own
Chaminade became the Giant Killer, defeating a 4th ranked SMU team led by
a young John Koncak (formerly with the Atlanta Hawks)? Awesome!
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