No. 13 Tulsa 75, Hawaii 61

HONOLULU (AP) -- Tulsa lived up to its No. 13 national ranking and routed Hawaii 75 - 61 Thursday night. Hawaii coach Riley Wallace thought the Golden Hurricane should be ranked higher. "I've said

Friday, February 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HONOLULU (AP) -- Tulsa lived up to its No. 13 national ranking and routed Hawaii 75 - 61 Thursday night. Hawaii coach Riley Wallace thought the Golden Hurricane should be ranked higher. "I've said all along that they're eighth, ninth or 10th," Wallace said. "They got all the ingredients. They just stay at you, stay at you."

Dave Shelton scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to lead Tulsa (24-2, 9-1 Western Athletic Conference). As for Shelton, a muscular 6-foot-6 junior, Wallace said, "He killed us underneath. We played him too soft." "We made more of an emphasis of getting the ball inside," Tulsa coach Bill Self said. "And defensively, we did a really good job of triangle and two-guarding their perimeter shooters. Just enough to throw them out of their rhythm."

Shelton didn't have a good first half, according to Self. "And at the start of the second half," Self said. "But down the stretch, he's a guy, when he feels like it, who can score. And he's awfully tough down there underneath. He's just a low-post guy, who's undersized, but who's so strong." Added Self, "We've got a bunch of guards who are just solid. And when we're playing together, we're hard to beat."

Greg Harrington scored 16 points, going 6-for-7 from the field, while Tony Heard added 11 points for Tulsa. Marquette Alexander led the Rainbows with 18 points, and Pedrag Savovic had 16, going 7-for-7 from the foul line. "He didn't hurt us as much from the field as he did from the free-throw line," Self said.

Scott Ostler tied his season-high with 15 rebounds for Hawaii (15-9, 4-7). Tulsa led 34-32 at halftime as Harrington sank two free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining to break the fourth tie of the game.

Hawaii took an 18-13 lead as Alexander scored 10 points. But the Golden Hurricane went on an 8-0 run to go ahead 21-18. Six straight free throws by Savovic got the lead back for the Rainbows, 30-29. But Heard hit a 3-pointer to put Tulsa on top again.

Mike McIntyre's two free throws tied it 32-all before Harrington's pair of foul shots gave Tulsa the lead at halftime. Nerijius Puida gave Hawaii a 39-39 tie early in the second half. Tulsa steadily pulled away as Shelton came off the bench and scored 15 of its final 29 points. "It was a tough game. We just pulled away down the stretch," Self said. "We were fortunate to pull away."