By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
A hungry Hawai‘i men’s basketball team super-sized last night and walked away content.
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| Hawai‘i’s Troy Ostler goes up for an uncontested slam in the first half. Ostler finished with 10 points as the Rainbows extended their home winning streak to five games.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser |
The Rainbows celebrated the debut of 6-foot-10, 255-pound Haim Shimonovich with a 79-65 win over Southern Methodist at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 3,783 watched the "good" Rainbows show up at home again in improving to 11-12 overall and 5-7 in the Western Athletic Conference. Hawai‘i is 5-1 at home in conference games, and 0-6 on the road, including a 13-point loss at SMU last month.
SMU, which entered last night’s game in second place, had a four-game winning streak snapped to fall to 18-7 and 8-4.
"Same old thing — a lot of energy at home," Hawai‘i coach Riley Wallace said. "I wish we could store some of this up and take it on the road with us."
The Rainbows, who are currently in sixth place in the nine-team WAC, own home victories over the top three teams in the conference — Fresno State, SMU and Tulsa.
Just like in the upsets of Fresno State and Tulsa, last night’s victory was a shared effort by the Rainbows. Four players scored in double figures as the team shot 59 percent (31 of 53) from the field. What’s more, 26 of those 31 baskets were assisted, and the Rainbows committed a season-low 10 turnovers.
To be sure, there were many heroes.
 Guard Predrag Savovic had game-highs of 20 points and nine assists. He also made four crucial free throws that helped clinch the victory in the closing moments, and did not commit a single turnover.
"This is one of his best games," Wallace said, also noting that Savovic limited SMU forward Willie Davis to six points, seven below his average.
Senior forward Nerijus Puida scored 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He connected on his first six shots of the game, and had 13 points in the first half, when Hawai'i led by as many as 11 before taking a 42-33 advantage at intermission.
Mike McIntyre started at point guard in place of injured David Hilton and finished with nine points and six assists in 15 minutes.
Carl English, a freshman reserve, filled in for 26 valuable minutes in place of McIntyre, who got into early foul trouble. In 17 first-half minutes, English had three points, four rebounds, three assists, and directed the UH offense smoothly, even though he has not practiced at the point guard position for several months.
"Carl played super," said Wallace, noting that English will now receive more playing time at the position.
Shimonovich, a freshman center, came off the bench to contribute two points, five rebounds, and low-post muscle. He played 16 minutes in his first game after sitting out a 22-game NCAA suspension for participating as an unpaid player in a professional league in Israel.
"I don’t care how many points or rebounds I get," Shimonovich said. "It’s the best feeling in the world just to help my teammates win this game."
Troy Ostler, aided by the presence of Shimonovich, had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
Phil Martin finished with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, and six rebounds. He also helped limit SMU’s star guard Jeryl Sasser to 14 points on 6-of-18 shooting.
Still, the Rainbows’ effort was almost stymied by a SMU rally. After trailing for most of the game, the Mustangs took a short-lived 55-53 lead midway through the second half on a basket by Sasser.
The score was tied at 56 before Hawai‘i went on a 9-1 run to take control. SMU got as close as 68-65 on a 3-pointer by Quinton Ross with 2:17 remaining, but those were the last points it would score.
Hawai‘i scored the game’s final 11 points, seven on free throws.
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