One long, disbelieving look down the left side of the University of Hawai'i' basketball team's suddenly thinned-out bench before tipoff last night said plenty.

Julian Sensley and Matt Gibson in street clothes and on the injured list. Bobby Nash's right shoulder in a sling, his application for a medical hardship year pending. Nine available players in total — one of them a walk-on.

"I was worried when I saw that," the coach said.

UH coach Riley Wallace?

Well, him, too, no doubt.

But we're talking Mike McConathy, the Northwestern State coach, whose fears of the Rainbow Warriors rallying around their bench were realized in UH's 80-76 victory for third place in the 42nd Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.

Thursday night NSU was victimized by a phantom free throw. Last night it was done in by the resolute charge of UH's light brigade.

This one the Demons saw coming and were powerless to stop. "I knew when Sensley and the other kids weren't going to play that we were in trouble because all those other guys were going to want to step up," McConathy said.

For that is what good teams do and for 40 remarkable minutes last night, in spite of everything that said they should be otherwise, the 'Bows were a good team. A vastly different one than opened the season deep and experienced against Michigan State just more than a month ago, to be sure. But, in their own way and circumstance, impressive nonetheless.

"They were incredible," McConathy said. And, for a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,324 that time and again rose to its feet in salute, they also were inspiring. A UH team that had seemed tentative and cowed by Colorado State the night before with nearly its full complement of players was possessed when reduced to its core last night. It was fearless when pushed.

"When an animal has his back up against the wall and he's hurt, that's when he's most deadly," Matt Gipson said. "That's what we felt like today. We knew we were going to win this game."

What nobody knew was that it would be freshman Hiram Thompson coming off that depleted bench to lead the charge with 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting. That is if anybody outside of his parents visiting from California and a few relatives on the North Shore knew who he was in the first place.

"I don't think they (the Demons) ever saw me on tape," Thompson joked afterward. And, how could they? Thompson had played all of seven minutes this season.

"Did I think Hiram was going to come in and get 15 points and pick up Julian's slack?" Wallace said. "No way."

As for Wallace, he claimed not to have wanted to look down the length of his bench last night. "I can remember three names. I knew I didn't have enough damn people to have to look down the bench."

Just enough, to scare the bejebbers out of Northwestern State. And, as it turned out, with reason.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.