When you are a leader of the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team, there can be little room for stubbornness or vanity.

Especially if you are forward Bill Amis and you are becoming Bill "A-miss," a man progressively facing frustration with an outside shooting touch when your team desperately needs one.

So, Amis wasn't too proud to go asking for some post-practice tutoring the other day and didn't cringe when head coach Bob Nash pulled him back for an additional session on top of that as teammates were long gone.

"I've been struggling," Amis acknowledged. "I made only one outside shot against Boise State (Saturday); if I'd shot better against them, we'd have had a better chance to win."

But there would be no what-ifs; no wondering about opportunities lost last night as Amis hit the winning 12-foot jumper from the right baseline with 8.1 seconds left in a must-have 65-64 victory over Louisiana Tech.

Just as it appeared the Rainbow Warriors were about to let yet another Western Athletic Conference game get away down the stretch, squandering a nearly game-long lead, Amis was the leader the 'Bows needed.

Though the 'Bows have no official team captain, Amis is the de facto one. And, as such, "I really want this team to win," Amis said. "I knew we needed it."

In that his play said it all. Amis hit 7 of 11 field-goal attempts and all three free throws for a game-high 17 points, added five rebounds and five assists to help the 9-5 (1-1 WAC) 'Bows avoid what would have been their first 0-2 conference start at home in a decade.

On a night when Paul Campbell (13 points and 12 rebounds) and Adhar Mayen (13 points) had career nights, Amis was the guy in the right places at the right times.

He helped frustrate the Bulldogs' attempts at a game-winning tip-in at the buzzer, but it was that jumper that told the tale for the 'Bows, who were desperate for someone, anyone, to hit a basket in crunch time.

Four times in five tries in the final 2 minutes and 18 seconds the 'Bows had put up shots against the tightening Bulldogs' zone and come up empty. With each failure the Stan Sheriff Center gathering of 3,325 groaned fearing a carbon copy of Saturday's exasperating fade-out.

Kareem Nitoto's only field goal, a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left, and Tech's inability to make a free throw (three misses in four tries) kept UH in this one, barely.

Amis pulled down a defensive rebound with 23 seconds left and then took the dish from Nitoto, whose drive had drawn in the zone.

"I just knew we really needed one (a shot)," Amis said. At that instant the work he'd put in with Nash reached its payoff.

"It felt good," Amis would say afterward.

Not just the technique, but being the kind of leader-by-example these 'Bows needed, too.

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