Bad News ‘Bows never out of it when they play this way

Did visions of Hawaii over Kansas float through your head briefly, too, as the Rainbows put a scare into No. 3 Oklahoma on Wednesday?

You can admit it, it was a realistic prospect to nearly the end.

UH lost 84-81, coming just short of pulling off its biggest upset since the 1997 Rainbow Classic championship game. That was when Anthony Carter and Alika Smith led Hawaii over No. 2 Kansas.

With star shooter Buddy Hield living up to his billing, OK, he nearly KO’d Hawaii before most of the crowd had made it out of the nachos line and into their seats. It was 21-5 before the ’Bows figured out they couldn’t leave Hield and the other Sooners marksmen open.

This one could’ve gotten really ugly, really fast. But Hawaii kept its cool, and instead of jacking up quick 3-pointers to try to get back into it (which more often makes things worse), it attacked Oklahoma inside, drew fouls, and — imagine this — made the free throws.

UH, which came in making a less-than-mediocre 61 percent from the stripe for the season, hit 14 of 16 in the first half, and that — plus a couple of well-timed 3-pointers by Roderick Bobbitt — is why it became a game. The hosts even held the lead a couple of times before going into the break trailing 41-40.

Coach Eran Ganot is right to be proud of this team’s resilience, its ability to take the worst that one of the best teams in the country can dish out and get off the floor and fight its way back into the contest.

It’s no surprise for those who have watched this same core group of players blank out everything except the task at hand since losing its head coach a few days before the start of last season — and all the way to Tuesday and the win over Northern Iowa, after getting the news from the NCAA that there would be no postseason play after the 2016-17 regular schedule.

That’s why I call them the Bad News ’ Bows. Nothing bothers them, nothing matters to them other than the here and now … not even being on the wrong end of the scoreboard, if it’s early enough.

And that’s why you couldn’t even count them out when they were down by four with 11 seconds left, or by three with less than two ticks remaining.

If you saw what Bobbitt did to beat Nevada in the waning moments, you knew a 3-pointer to tie it was possible, maybe even plausible.

But two exhausted squads playing for the second day in a row combined to make just three of their last 24 shots from the floor, including Bobbitt’s desperation 45-foot heave as the buzzer sounded. It had become a free-throw shooting contest, and after the break the Rainbows reverted to that being a team weakness. And three Hawaii starters — including season leading scorer Aaron Valdes — combined for just nine points in 69 minutes.

Bobbitt and his career-high 32 points prevented that blowout that appeared to be taking shape, and kept UH in the hunt for the big upset to the end. He didn’t seal the deal like Carter did against Kansas 18 years ago, but he showed again why he is just as valuable to the current Rainbows.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.