The University of Hawaii, short-handed and undersized, fought and scrambled against No. 14 New Mexico last night, but the shots just would not fall in the 65-57 defeat in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
And they were good shots, decent looks at the basket. But time after time they rolled around and around, like a roulette ball, and out they came.
''We took good shots, but just didn't hit them,'' said UH forward Micah Kroeger, who was shut out in the scoring column while playing on a banged-up knee. ''That's just the way it goes sometimes.''
Rainbow guard Anthony Carter struggled from the outside, hitting just 4 of 17 from the field, including 1 of 7 from three-point land. He finished with 16 points and four assists.
''I wasn't making my shots, but you have to keep taking them,'' Carter said. ''I'm not making any excuses, though. I had the shots and should have made them.''
Hawaii fell to 20-7 on the season -- and now must wait until Sunday to see if it will play in either the NCAA or NIT tournament.
The Rainbows came out in a man-to-man defense, but New Mexico roared to a 17-8 lead before Hawaii coach Riley Wallace switched to a zone defense at the 11:28 mark.
''We got too far behind and had to chase them the rest of the way,'' Wallace said. ''And that's hard to do against a good team like New Mexico.''
Hawaii trailed by 12 at the intermission, 35-23, but quickly cut it to 35-30 in the opening minutes of the second half. But then the shooting woes returned.
The Rainbows shot 31 percent (10-for-32) in the first half and 34 percent (11-for-32) in the second.
Alika Smith scored 19 for UH, but he only made one of five three-point attempts.
''I'm not going to second-guess myself on starting in a man-to-man,'' Wallace said. ''(Eric) Ambrozich, especially, was getting the shots early, but they kept going in and out. But I liked the way we stayed together and gave ourselves a chance to win.''
It looked like Hawaii might have saved its biggest miracle of the season for the end as it cut the New Mexico lead to 62-56 with 33 seconds left before the Lobos finally ran out the clock.
''I almost died with about 30 seconds to go,' said Lobos coach Dave Bliss. ''We were doing some crazy things out there.''
Four New Mexico players were in double figures: Clayton Shields (18), Charles Smith (15), Kenny Thomas (12) and Lamont Long (10).
Michael Robinson had a huge game on the boards for UH with 13 rebounds, but he only hit 4 of 10 from the floor. Danny Furlong played tough defense on Thomas inside, but he hit just 2-of-6 from the field and Ambrozich was 2-of-8.
''I thought Hawaii did a great job, especially with their limited personnel,'' Bliss said. ''They played us very tough.''
''This is the best bunch of young men that you would ever want to be around,'' Wallace said, after making a personal and emotional pitch for an NCAA bid. ''As I've said all along, it a very special team."
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