The Rainbow Warriors proved their worth as the No. 1 seed of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament with a 71-56 victory over No. 9 San Jose State in today's quarterfinals. The 'Bows, the defending champions of the WAC Tournament, will play a semifinal game tomorrow at 2 p.m. (Hawai'i time).

"We did a good job defensively," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "We played them as physical as the officials would allow us to. And Savo came back and you put a ball in his hands and any injury he's got heals immediately."

Savovic, starting despite lingering pain in his lower back from muscle spasms, recorded his first statistical double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

"Like Coach said, give me the ball in my hands and I'll be fine," Savovic said. "There was a little pain, but I played it through."

Carl English, last year's WAC Tournament MVP, added a game-high 21 points, five assists and four rebounds. Point guard Mark Campbell contributed a career-high 17 points, including 10 during the decisive second half.

"Coach has been talking to me about being ready for the tournament," said Campbell, who shot 7-of-11 from the field. "It hasn't really been my job. We have six great scorers and my job is to get them the ball. But today (San Jose State's) game plan was not to guard me."

Campbell hit two of his career-high three 3-pointers during an 11-4 surge midway through the second half that gave Hawai'i an insurmountable 51-34 lead with 13:27 remaining. The Spartans never got closer than 12 after that.

Savovic showed early that his back would not be a problem. He made two 3-pointers during a 10-0 surge that gave Hawai'i a 16-7 lead it would never relinquish the rest of the game.

San Jose State got as close as 23-21 with 6:11 remaining in the half, but English and Savovic combined to score UH's next nine points as the 'Bows took a 32-27 lead at halftime.

English had 13 points and four assists in the first half alone. Savovic contributed eight points, including 2-of-3 shooting from 3-point range in the first half.

Hawai'i opened the second half by scoring eight consecutive points to push the lead to 40-27 with 17:41 remaining.

"The second half, the way we started it, you can't start a second half that way," San Jose State head coach Steve Barnes said. "(Hawai'i) started to get into an offensive rhythm and we did a poor job for the first two or three minutes."

With the victory, Hawai'i improved to 25-5, tying a school-record for most victories in a season.

The 'Bows shot 46 percent from the field (25-of-55), including 7-of-17 from 3-point range. In contrast, the Spartans shot 32 percent from the field (20-of-62), including 6-of-19 from 3-point range.