San Jose State dashes UH's hopes for top-25 ranking

By Marcus Fuller
Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

The talk of the week was whether the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team should be in the top 25.

Hawai'i's Predrag Savovic grabbed a rebound over a fallen Ryan Davis of San Jose State in the first half last night. Associated Press

The Spartans ended UH's nine-game winning streak, handed the Rainbow Warriors their first Western Athletic Conference loss, and earned their first conference win.

UH is 15-3 overall and 6-1 in the WAC. San Jose State is 6-13 and 1-6. UH remains in first in the WAC, a half game ahead of Tulsa (5-1).

Hawai'i's shooting performance was night and day from its record setting display last Saturday in a victory against Southern Methodist at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Warriors' scoring leaders, Predrag Savovic and Carl English, were a combined 7-for-25 from the field and 3-of-14 from 3-point range. Savovic scored 12 points, along with Mindaugas Burneika and Phil Martin. English finished with 11.

UH shot just 34 percent from the field (18-of-53), including a dismal 3-of-20 from 3-point range. Last Saturday, UH established a school record with 14 3-pointers against SMU.

Despite shooting afoul, UH was still in the game until San Jose State started hitting foul shots.

Brandon Hawkins and Andre Valentine sealed the victory, hitting 7 of 8 from the free-throw line in the final two minutes.

The Spartans were 6 of 17 from the line before that. Hawkins had six of his 10 points in the last two minutes.

Savovic, who brought Hawai'i to within two points (55-53) with a 3-point basket with 15 seconds left, said he wasn't shocked at the play of the Spartans.

"They wanted it just as bad as we did," he said. "Everyone on the road is going to play you tough it doesn't matter who."

Spartan forward David Granucci, who scored a career-high 17 points, said: "We hit big shots when we had to and everyone just made plays."

Spartan head coach Steve Barnes never uttered the words Top 25 and Hawai'i in the same sentence until halftime of yesterday's game. The third-year coach said he didn't believe in relying on emotion to spark his team to victory. He changed his mind when his team trailed 27-24 at halftime.

"I'm not a hype guy, but at halftime I said there's a team out there that thinks they're Top 25," he said. "My point was that they're going to come out and fight tooth and nail. They do deserve to be a Top 25 team and that's why we could not let up at all."

Barnes added more fuel to the fire when he was ejected after receiving his second technical foul of the game midway through the second half for arguing a reaching foul call on Hawkins.

Hawai'i momentarily regained the lead 38-35, but SJSU went on a 17-8 run to all but end the contest and the Top 25 talk.

"We win this ball game, we probably break in the Top 25," Wallace said. "Now we really have to prove ourselves next week. It still doesn't mean we're down and out."

The 'Bows sprinted out to a 9-0 advantage three minutes into the contest, but then went ice cold. After opening the game by shooting 6-of-9 from the field, UH then went more than 11 minutes without a field goal, allowing SJSU to turn a 13-4 deficit into a 15-14 lead.

UH will stay on the road for games at Rice on Thursday, and then at Tulsa on Saturday.

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