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UH gets TULSA, Okla. >> One down, two to go.
shot at Pack
Rainbows avenge San Jose
State loss and get another
chance against NevadaBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comHawaii avenged one of its three conference losses yesterday, eliminating San Jose State 71-56 in a Western Athletic Conference quarterfinal at the Reynolds Center.
Next up at 2 p.m. today Hawaii time?
Nevada, which handed the Rainbows their final defeat of the regular season eight days ago in Reno, 79-69. It was the only double-figure loss for Hawaii, which had taken its four previous losses by a combined 13 points.
Fifth-seeded Nevada ousted No. 4 seed Southern Methodist 72-66. Terrance Green scored 23 points and Corey Jackson had 10 points and 18 rebounds, one off the tournament record, to lead the Wolf Pack (17-12).
In yesterday's other quarterfinals, Fresno State beat Louisiana Tech 72-69 and Tulsa beat Boise State 72-53.
"We didn't care who we played," said junior guard Mark Campbell, the surprise star of yesterday's game. "With Nevada, it's a payback."
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Nevada coach Trent Johnson said last week's win over Hawaii was his team's best game of the year. The Wolf Pack downed the Rainbows 79-69 in a game in which UH senior guard Predrag Savovic went down early in the second half with lower back spasms."Hopefully, we can play at that level again," Johnson said. "The third time around, they're as familiar with us as we are with them.
"It's going to be a matter of who executes the best. They present problems for us at all five positions."
In yesterday's payback game, Campbell was the biggest problem for the Spartans, with career highs of three 3-pointers and 17 points. But it was his pregame crisis that lightened up the locker room preparation for the Spartans.
The big question wasn't whether Savovic would be effective after a week's layoff.
The big question centered on how Campbell was going to keep his hair out of his eyes.
When Rainbow coach Riley Wallace wouldn't allow Campbell to wear a headband, the guard nicknamed "Sheepdog" ended up borrowing some hair gel from a member of the Rainbow Dancers. He turned a bad hair day into a career afternoon.
"I had to figure out something on the spur of the moment to fix my hair," said Campbell.
What San Jose State (10-22) couldn't figure out was Campbell's sudden attack of shooting. Spartans head coach Steve Barnes said he decided to play the odds, leaving Campbell open while rotating the double-team on Hawaii's known deadly shooters, Savovic and Carl English.
"I'd rather have him shoot than Savo and English," said Barnes.
Barnes lost the gamble and the game when Campbell connected on 7 of 11 from the floor, and 3 of 6 from 3-point range.
"They basically dared me to shoot it," said Campbell, whose previous high of 11 points came in the season opener against Norfolk State. "That's really not my game. We have six great shooters and my job is to get the ball to them.
"But if I can hit a few, it makes it easier on everybody else."
Campbell, a junior college transfer, is the only Rainbow starter who didn't play in last year's WAC tournament. Hawaii coach Riley Wallace emphasized during practice this week that Campbell needed to be ready to score if that's what the defense dictated.
"They were dropping off of him because he's been so unselfish all year in getting everyone else their points," Wallace said. "He was probably the difference in the game. There's no way they could anticipate he'd do that."
His teammates had faith.
"He does it in practice and we knew he could do it in a game," said sophomore Carl English, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "He's not going to score 17 every night, but if he can score 8, 9, 10 points, it takes a lot of pressure off me, Savo, Mike (McIntyre) and Mindaugas (Burneika). It means the other team can't double-team us. It creates a lot of open shots for the rest of us."
Savovic took a game-high 15 attempts, hitting just five, and finished with 15 points. He added a season-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the year.
Savovic also kept alive his streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer, extending it to 32 games. He hit two treys in a row to give Hawaii a 14-7 lead with 14:42 left in the first half.
"There was a little pain, but I wanted to be here with my team," Savovic said.
"Put a ball in his hands and any injury he's got is healed immediately," Wallace joked after the team improved to 25-5.
A victory today breaks the school record for wins in a season. The 1989-90 squad finished 25-10.
Wallace top coach: Wallace was named the Coach of the Year for District 13, one of 15 regions recognized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. It was the first such honor for the 15-year head coach and it makes him eligible for national honors.
Wallace is quite the media darling this week. He was on ESPN radio last night as part of the Bob Valvano Show. He's the subject of several newspaper columns, including yesterday in the Tulsa World. Yesterday's USA Today had a feature on Hawaii's road routines entitled, "Called for Traveling."
Injury update: English played with his left elbow bandaged yesterday. He hyper-extended it in Wednesday's practice and had to ice it down after yesterday's game.
At Tulsa, Okla. WAC tournament
Yesterday
Men
No. 1 seed Hawaii 71, No. 9 San Jose State 59
No. 2 Tulsa 72, No. 7 Boise State 53
No. 6 Fresno State 72, No. 3 Louisiana Tech 66
No. 5 Nevada 72, No. 4 SMU 66Today (Hawaii time)
Women
No. 3 Hawaii vs. No. 2 Rice, 8 a.m.
No. 1 Louisiana Tech vs. No. 5 Tulsa, 10:30 a.m.Men
No. 1 Hawaii vs. No. 5 Nevada, 2 p.m.
No. 6 Fresno State vs. No. 2 Tulsa, 4:30 p.m.Saturday
Women
Championship, 9 a.m.
Men
Championship, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
Hawaii 71, San Jose St. 56
SPARTANS (10-22, 4-14 WAc) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Granucci 1 2 2 2 24 4 0 4 Calvert 2 6 0 0 21 3 1 6 Thurmond 5 13 6 7 37 14 1 16 Black 3 8 0 0 17 0 0 8 Hawkins 7 14 2 5 38 4 2 17 Alvarez 2 10 0 0 25 4 0 5 Valentine 0 7 0 0 17 5 0 0 Davis 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 Jenkins 0 1 0 0 19 2 2 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 20 62 10 14 200 39 6 56 RAINBOWS (25-5, 15-3 WAC) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Savovic 5 15 3 4 32 11 2 15 Martin 0 3 0 0 26 6 4 0 Shimonovich 2 4 0 0 28 8 1 4 Campbell 7 11 0 0 29 0 2 17 English 8 14 3 5 34 4 5 21 McIntyre 1 5 5 6 25 1 1 7 Takaki 0 0 0 0 0+ 0 0 0 Burneika 2 3 0 0 19 3 0 4 Holliday 0 0 0 0 0+ 0 0 0 Jesinskis 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 2 Akpan 0 0 1 2 5 1 0 1 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 25 55 15 23 200 39 15 71 Key -- fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime -- Hawaii 32, San Jose St. 27.
3-point goals -- San Jose St. 6-19 (Calvert 2-3, Black 2-5, Alvarez 1-9, Hawkins 1-1, Valentine 0-1); Hawaii 6-23 (Savovic 2-4, McIntyre 0-2, English 2-5, Campbell 3-6). Personal fouls -- San Jose St. 19, Hawaii 13. Technical fouls -- none. Steals -- San Jose St. 3 (Thurmond, Alvarez, Jenkins); Hawaii 7 (Savovic 2, Martin 2, Burneika, McIntyre, Campbell). Blocked shots -- San Jose St. 1 (Hawkins); Hawaii 3 (Shimonovich 3). Turnovers -- San Jose St. 11 (Hawkins 4, Granucci 2, Calvert 2, Black 2, Davis); Hawaii 9 (English 3, Martin 2, Savovic, Shimonovich, Campbell, McIntyre). Officials -- Harrington, Smith, Reed. A -- NA.
Other games
Tulsa 72, Boise State 53: Kevin Johnson had 16 points and nine rebounds as the Golden Hurricane won in the quarterfinals.Tulsa (25-5) plays Fresno State in a semifinal today.
After a sluggish start, Tulsa closed the first half with a 23-6 run to take a 36-19 lead at halftime. Tulsa built the lead to 52-31 early in the second half and never had any trouble with the Broncos (13-17).
Fresno St. 72, Louisiana Tech 69: Chris Sandy had 19 points and made two free throws with 7.5 seconds remaining as Fresno State (19-13) beat Louisiana Tech (20-9).
Sandy, who missed the previous six games after being suspended for an NCAA rules violation, broke a 61-61 tie with a 3-pointer.
Trailing 70-67 with 11 seconds left, Louisiana Tech's Gerrod Henderson hit what he thought was a tying 3-pointer. Referees ruled he had a toe on the line.
Henderson had one final attempt to tie it but missed at the buzzer.
Melvin Ely had 19 points and seven rebounds for Fresno State.
Nevada 72, SMU 66: Terrance Green converted a three-point play and Nevada made seven free throws in the final two minutes for the Wolf Pack.
Nevada (17-12), which had lost three of its past four games, will play top-seeded Hawaii in the semifinals today at 2 p.m.
Damon Hancock had 28 points for SMU (15-14), which had beaten Nevada twice during the regular season.
Nevada built an 11-point lead in the second half, then watched it disappear under a furious Mustang comeback.
Quinton Ross broke away for a court-length pass and a layup to tie the score at 62 with 4:07 left. After a free throw by Corey Jackson, Green converted his three-point play and Nevada spent the remaining time shooting free throws.
Green led Nevada with 23 points.
UH Athletics