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Hawaii's Haim Shimonovich held back San Jose State's Keith Everage during the first half in San Jose, Calif., yesterday. The Rainbows lost their third road game of the season. It was their second WAC road loss.
Rainbows trip SAN JOSE, Calif. >> The next time Hawaii basketball coach Riley Wallace negotiates a contract extension, he may want to include a clause that precludes him from having to go to San Jose State for the rest of his tenure.
at San Jose again
The Spartans have beaten visiting
WAC standings / Game scores
UH four of the last five times
From staff and wire services
For the second year in a row, San Jose State got its first Western Athletic Conference win of the season by beating a heavily favored Hawaii squad as the Spartans scored a 79-67 victory over the Rainbows last night at the Event Center.
San Jose State (4-10, 1-4) snapped an eight-game losing streak, while Hawaii's winning streak was stopped at three. The Rainbows (11-3, 4-2) have lost four of their last five games in San Jose and are 1-3 on the road this season.
"It's just frustrating," Hawaii forward Phil Martin said. "You sit for a minute and you try to think of what the reasons are, and you can't really understand it. You know what happened, but you don't know why."
Hawaii heads south to face Fresno State on Thursday. The Bulldogs (13-3, 6-1) are alone in first place in the conference after winning at Louisiana Tech 61-60 yesterday.
Hawaii remains in second place, a half-game ahead of Rice and Tulsa, both 3-2 in the conference.
"They can't drop their heads," Wallace said. "Somebody's got to show some leadership to make sure we're ready to go. The players have to step it up. They didn't do that tonight until the second half and it was too late. We have to find some leadership out on the court."
San Jose State guard Brandon Hawkins led all scorers with 23 points, and Keith West added 20. The Spartans also got big games out of two freshmen forwards, with Antonio Lawrence hitting for 16 points and Keith Everage scoring 14.
At 6-foot-5, Everage was the tallest player in San Jose State's starting lineup. But the Spartans outrebounded the Rainbows 37-34, with Lawrence and Everage grabbing 11 each.
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San Jose State's Scott Sonnenberg went up for a shot as teammate Antonio Lawrence blocked out Hawaii's Nkeruwem Akpan.
"It all came down to defense," Martin said. "We didn't have enough intensity.
"We felt we were ready. We were really prepared, but it didn't go our way. We worked hard in practice, the scouting team gave us a really good look, and we were playing good defense. But it is just a matter of applying that to real-life situations."
Martin led Hawaii with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. Michael Kuebler added 14 and Mark Campbell had 11.
But the Spartans held Hawaii guard Carl English, who led the WAC in scoring with an average of 20.5 points per game, to six points before he fouled out late in the game.
"They just defended him, getting out on him and not giving him any looks," Wallace said. "And the middle was jammed where he couldn't drive."
Said UH forward Nkeruwem Akpan: "It's not like it's one person's fault, it was the whole team."
The Rainbows shot 48 percent from the field, but went 3-for-14 beyond the 3-point line and 10-for-22 from the free-throw line. They were also hampered by 14 turnovers, which led to 21 Spartan points.
Hawaii trailed by as many as 15 in the first half and went into halftime down 43-29.
San Jose State took control early, opening up a 13-4 lead less than four minutes into the game. Hawaii fought back to within five at 22-17, but each time the Rainbows closed the gap the Spartans spurted away again. Lawrence punctuated the half by nailing a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We came out flat and let them jump out to a good start," Wallace said. "I knew they were going to be tough for us because of their quickness. They like to take people off the dribble, and those kinds of teams have hurt us because of our lack of quickness defensively."
Hawaii went to a zone defense early in the second half, and the switch worked for a while, as the Spartans misfired on jumpers. Martin scored eight of Hawaii's first nine points of the second half to help the Rainbows climb back into the game.
Kuebler then hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to five at 46-41 with 12:48 left in the contest.
But Hawkins responded by scoring SJSU's next 10 points, including a 3-pointer to stretch the Spartans' lead back to double-digits at 56-45 with 10:02 left. Hawaii would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
"We need to erase this," Martin said. "We'll bounce back; we'll be ready for Fresno."
The Spartans drew their biggest crowd of the season, as 1,536 fans showed up for last night's game. SJSU averaged fewer than 800 fans in their previous home dates.
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Key -- fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points. WAC standings
WAC games Overall W L Pct. W L Fresno St. 6 1 .857 13 3 Hawaii 4 2 .666 11 3 Rice 3 2 .600 11 4 Tulsa 3 2 .600 10 4 Boise St. 3 3 .500 9 7 Nevada 3 3 .500 8 8 Louisiana Tech 2 3 .400 5 7 SMU 2 3 .400 7 8 San Jose St. 1 4 .200 4 10 UTEP 1 5 .167 3 12
Yesterday
Boise St. 78, Tulsa 74
San Jose St. 79, Hawaii 67
Rice 91, UTEP 63
SMU 86, Nevada 76, OT
Fresno St. 61, Louisiana Tech 60
San Jose St. 79, Hawaii 67
WARRIORS (11-3, 4-2 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Martin 8 10 2 2 22 5 0 18 Kuebler 6 11 0 1 36 3 1 14 Shimonovich 2 5 1 3 35 4 3 5 Campbell 3 6 4 10 40 6 8 11 English 2 9 2 4 24 6 2 6 Zivanovic 0 2 0 0 4 1 0 0 Carter 3 7 1 2 22 2 1 7 Peciukas 0 1 0 0 6 1 1 0 Akpan 3 5 0 0 11 1 0 6 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 27 56 10 22 200 34 16 67 SAN JOSE ST. (4-10, 1-4 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp West 6 12 8 12 40 7 3 20 Lawrence 6 13 2 5 35 11 2 16 Everage 6 13 2 3 40 11 3 14 Hawkins 8 11 6 9 39 4 4 23 Sonnenberg 2 8 0 0 36 2 6 4 Moore 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 2 Okunrinboye 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lilly 0 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 28 58 20 31 200 37 18 79 Halftime -- San Jose St. 43, Hawaii 29.
3-point goals--Hawaii 3-14 (Kuebler 2-5, Campbell 1-4, English 0-2, Carter 0-2, Peciukas 0-1), San Jose St. 3-10 (Lawrence 2-2, Hawkins 1-3, Sonnenberg 0-4, West 0-1). Personal fouls--Hawaii 24, San Jose St. 22. Technical fouls--None. Steals--Hawaii 7 (Campbell 4, Martin, Shimonovich, Carter); San Jose St. 10 (Everage 3, Hawkins 3, West 2, Lawrence 2). Blocked shots--Hawaii 3 (Shimonovich 3); San Jose St. 1 (Lawrence). Turnovers--Hawaii 14 (Kuebler 4, Shimonovich 3, Campbell 3, Carter); San Jose St. 12 (West 4, Lawrence 2, Hawkins 2, Moore 2, Sonnenberg). Officials--Tom Wood, Mike Giarratano, Michael Eggers. A--1,536.
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