Hawaii won a thriller in the 1st round with PG David Hamilton and reserve C Gerrick Williams combining for 37 points. Then in the 2nd round, the Warriors put together a very strong 2nd half to win with ease as their bench players led by Gerrick Williams scored 32 of the team’s 66 points. In round 3, Hawaii’s defense failed them and they lost by 22 points.
Nevada score 58 points in the 2nd half to win by 23 points in round one as SG Rick Newman and SF Marlow Vickers combined for 44 points. In round 2, the Wolfpack applied a staunch defense to win by 17. Like Hawaii, Nevada’s defense fell apart in round 3 to create a 21 point deficit in the first half and while they rallied in the 2nd half, they still lost by 9 even though SG Rick Newman scored 19 points.
Starting lineups:
Hawaii: PG 6-5 David Hamilton, SG 6-3 Shannon Sykes, SF 6-8 David Howard, PF 6-7 Darius Allison, C 6-8 Todd Brown
Nevada: PG 5-6 Brett Boston, SG 6-2 Rick Newman, SF 6-8 Marlo Vickers, PF 6-8 Hollis Booth, C 6-9 Donald Thornton
Both teams were tight for about 8 minutes at the start of the game with frequent turnovers and poor shooting. The refs were continually calling fouls against Nevada, allowing Hawaii to at least score some points even though their shooting was horrible. At that point though, Nevada put on a run that carried them to a 19-7 lead with 8:42 remaining in the first half. Late in the half, Hawaii finally got their offense untracked and put some points up on the board. But they weren’t able to trim the margin much and left the court trailing 33-24.
Both teams shot poorly with Hawaii hitting only 36% of their shots and Nevada only able to get 33% of the FG’s to drop. But Hawaii has small advantages in rebounding and turnovers, shot better at the foul line and hit 5 of 12 threes while Hawaii scored no points on 3’s. C Todd Brown and reserve SG Jason Oliver both scored 8 points for Hawaii. As usual SG Rick Newman was high point man for Nevada with 8 points.
Hawaii again started slowly in the 2nd half and fell behind by 19 just 4 minutes into the final stanza. Midway through the half, Nevada increased their lead to 59-35. From that point on the lead fluctuated between 20-25 points so the outcome was never in doubt.
Final Score: Nevada—71, Hawaii—49. (Nevada finished in 3rd place and Hawaii finishes in 6th place.
Hawaii: PG David Hamilton-6/3/2, SG Shannon Sykes-3/2/6, SF David Howard-5/1/2, PF Darius Allison-3/0/5, C Todd Brown-10/1/4; Bench Player: Jason Oliver-8/2/2.
Warriors team stats: FG%-38%, 18 of 30 FT’s, 1 of 9 Threes, 28 Rebs, 17 TO’s, 20 PF’s.
Nevada: PG Brett Boston-7/6*/2, SG Rick Newman-17*/1/5, SF Marlo Vickers-11/2/3, PF Hollis Booth-12/1/10*, C Donald Thornton-9/1/4; Bench player: Jermaine Cockle-6/0/4.
Wolfpack team stats: FG%-41%, 25 of 31 FT’s, 8 of 23 Threes, 34 Rebs, 13 TO’s, 23 PF’s.
Player of the Game: Nevada SG Rick Newman-17 pts, 1 assist, 5 reb, 1 steal, 1 block.