Savovic's shot puts road win in the bank for UH men

By Nick Jezierny
Special to The Advertiser

BOISE, Idaho — Predrag Savovic lost his wallet yesterday, but found a bank just in time to lead the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team to a 64-62 victory over Boise State last night.

Hawai'i's Phil Martin, left, and Boise State's Abe Jackson await a rebound in a Western Athletic Conference game at Boise, Idaho. Associated Press

The win gave Hawai'i (13-2 overall, 4-0 Western Athletic Conference) its seventh consecutive victory and a sweep of its first WAC road swing of the season.

The 13-2 start is UH's best in Riley Wallace's 15 seasons as head coach. The last time Hawai'i started 13-2 was during the 1981-82 season; the last time it started 4-0 in the WAC was 1994.

It also marked the first time since 1998 that the 'Bows were able to win back-to-back WAC road games on the same trip. Hawai'i, which defeated Texas-El Paso 70-68 on Thursday, is 2-0 on the WAC road this season after going 2-20 in the previous three seasons.

"It doesn't mean anything until March," said Savovic, who finished with team-highs of 22 points and eight rebounds. "I shot (the tie-breaking 3-pointer) a little too strong. I thought it would go in, and it went in."

The shot temporarily silenced a crowd of 6,806, which was the largest of the season for the Broncos (7-7, 1-3) at BSU Pavilion. It also gave the 'Bows a win in the first meeting between the two schools.

"I don't know how to say his name, but he made that big shot that banked in," BSU coach Rod Jensen said. "I don't know how much time was on the shot clock. We had great pressure, and he somehow willed it in there. What a great play."

Hawai'i still had to weather a final Bronco comeback. After Savovic made a pair of free throws with 10.4 seconds left, the Broncos designed a play for top scorer Abe Jackson, who finished with a game-high 27 points. Jackson lost the ball but was fouled by Hawai'i's Carl English with 1.1 seconds to play.

Jackson sank the first foul shot, then BSU called timeout to design a play for an intentional miss. Jackson missed the free throw, but Phil Martin grabbed the rebound to seal the win for UH.

"My train of thought was there was only one second and the one job we had was to get the rebound," Martin said. "We didn't want anyone making a mistake. We had to box out because everything was on the line. That's what I did — I tried to seal it, grab it and mail it in."

Martin, unlike his teammate Savovic, savored the rare sweep on the road.

"Two road wins — that's fabulous," he said. "For us, it sends a message to everyone across the nation. (But) we have things to work on. This was a sloppy display tonight."

The game was a matchup of the top two defenses in the WAC.

"There were two good defensive teams, but I thought they played better defense than we did," Wallace said. "But I thought we played good enough to win. That's all that matters."

Hawai'i shot 51 percent (24-of-47) from the field compared to 45 percent (21-of-47) for Boise State. However, the Broncos out-rebounded the 'Bows, 27-25.

Wallace had encouraging words for the performance of Savovic, who played 39-plus minutes.

"Savo's made that shot off the glass a couple of times," Wallace said. "Every time he puts it up, he thinks it's going to go in. To me, that was a game-saver."

Savovic also drew the task of defending BSU's Jackson, who shot 6-of-15, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range.

"He's a great player, and I have a lot of respect for him," Savovic said. "It was a pleasure playing against him. He caused us problems."

The 'Bows turned up the defensive pressure in the first half to turn a 14-10 deficit into a 37-30 halftime lead. Hawai'i led by as many as 11 in the second half, the latest coming at 51-40 with nine minutes to play.

But Jackson and Bryan Defares (13 points) helped pull BSU even at 57.

"Hawai'i did what it had to do," Jensen said. "That's why they won the conference championship last year on the road at Tulsa."

English and Mindaugas Burneika added 11 points apiece for Hawai'i.

UH returns home to play Louisiana Tech on Thursday.