'Bows one step closer to NCAA tournament

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

TULSA, Okla. — Even top seeds can surprise.

From left, University of Hawai'i's Haim Shimonovich, San Jose State's James Jenkins, UH's Carl English and SJSU's Brandon Hawkins battle for a loose ball. Hawai'i won, 71-56. Associated Press

The Rainbow Warriors, the No. 1 seed for the first time in the 19-year history of the tournament, improved to 25-5 overall, tying the school record for most victories in a season. More important, the 'Bows advanced to today's semifinals, and one step closer to an NCAA Tournament bid.

"I think we should be in (the NCAA Tournament) regardless," said UH sophomore Carl English, who scored a game-high 21 points. "But if we want to be sure, we gotta win this (WAC) tournament like we did last year."

Hawai'i will play Nevada today at 2 p.m. (Hawai'i time) in the first semifinal. The Wolf Pack defeated Southern Methodist yesterday, 72-66.

Hawai'i's victory over the No. 9-seeded Spartans wasn't so much the surprise. The 'Bows who played key roles in the win were.

Senior guard Predrag Savovic was questionable all week because of muscle spasms in his lower back. All he did was start, play 32 minutes, and record his first statistical double-double of the season with 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.

"You put a ball in his hands and any injury he's got heals immediately," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "He didn't have a good shooting night, but he's coming along each day and looks better."

The one 'Bow who did have a good shooting night was point guard Mark Campbell, even if it was unexpected. The 6 foot 4 junior entered yesterday's game averaging 3.3 points per game. All he did was score a career-high 17 on 7-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range.

"He stepped in there with confidence," Wallace said. "His 17 points was probably the difference in the ball game right there because there's no way they could anticipate that he was going to do that."

Indeed, Campbell's previous high this season was 11, and that came on opening night in November. In his last eight games, Campbell scored a total of eight points on 2-of-9 shooting.

"It hasn't really been my job (to score)," Campbell said. "We have six great scorers and my job is to get them the ball. Today, (San Jose State's) game plan was not to guard me and I hit the first couple shots and got some confidence and just kept shooting when I was open."

San Jose State head coach Steve Barnes admitted underestimating Campbell's scoring ability.

"We played the odds," Barnes said. "I probably would try it again because I'd still rather have (Campbell) shoot than Savo or English."

Instead, the Spartans had to deal with all three.

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 quick 16-7 lead it would not relinquish the rest of the game.

"Like Coach said, give me the ball in my hands and I'll be fine," said Savovic, who shot 5-of-15 from the field, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range. "There's a little pain, but I played it through. Coach looked closely if something was wrong, and fortunately, nothing went wrong."

Nothing was wrong with English, either. But if there is such a thing as a leading scorer being overlooked, that was him yesterday.

"We find each other and we're a team," said English, who also contributed a team-high five assists and four rebounds. "Savo was Savo. Mark did something we haven't seen before. It just gives us more scorers out there. I was just doing my thing to fit in."

San Jose State got as close as 23-21 with 6:11 remaining in the first half, but English and Savovic combined to score UH's next nine points for a 32-27 lead at halftime. English had 13 points and four assists by intermission.

"I thought that the first half, even though we didn't shoot it great, we still defended well enough and rebounded well enough to keep it close," Barnes said. "I felt like we got behind a little bit, but kept plugging away."

That feeling was short-lived for the Spartans, as Hawai'i scored the first eight points of the second half to all but put it out of reach at 40-27.

"Coach didn't get on us real hard (at halftime)," English said. "He just said to be more patient. He didn't want us to shoot until we took 10 seconds off the clock, so it was a different style."

Campbell scored 10 points in the second half, including six during an 11-4 surge that gave Hawai'i a commanding 51-34 lead with 13:27 remaining. The Spartans never got closer than 13 the rest of the way.

"They were definitely daring me to take it," Campbell said of the Spartans' defense. "It was definitely their game plan to try to play four on five. My shots have been feeling good all week, so I hit the first couple and after that just had a lot of confidence."

The 'Bows shot 46 percent from the field (25-of-55), and held the Spartans to 32 percent (20-of-62).

"We just didn't execute," said SJSU point guard Brandon Hawkins, who scored a team-high 17 points. "Against a team of that caliber, you have to execute and you can't make that many mistakes."

An aggressive man-to-man defense by Hawai'i forced the Spartans to shoot just 30 percent (10-of-33) in the decisive second half.

"Our perimeter guys didn't shoot the ball very well," Barnes said. "That put a lot of pressure on Brandon Hawkins to penetrate, but all the Hawai'i guys were able to drop on him."

Marion Thurmond contributed 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Spartans, who completed their season 10-22. One of those victories was against Hawai'i on Jan. 19 at San Jose, Calif.

"That helped us today, I think," Wallace said, "knowing they had the capability of beating us."

He is hoping the same mentality works today. Nevada, the No. 5 seed, beat the 'Bows, 79-69, last week at Reno, Nev.