Hawaii shows some heart, beats Cal
SPOKANE, Wash. — Eran Ganot was a bit over a month into his first regular season as head coach when Hawaii was slapped with NCAA sanctions that could have crippled the stability he was trying to create in the program.
Instead of crumbling because of the uncertainty about their future, the Warriors jelled into the Big West Conference regular-season and tournament champions and now are the first team in school history to win an NCAA tournament game.
“The state of Hawaii deserves this. They deserve this more than we do,” Hawaii guard Sai Tummala said.
The 13th-seeded Warriors ended No. 4 California’s tumultuous week with a 77-66 upset victory Friday in a South Region first-round game, the latest success in an unexpected season for Hawaii, which will face No. 5 seed Maryland after the Terrapins hung on to beat Sourh Dakota State.
Quincy Smith scored a career-high with 19 points, Roderick Bobbitt had 17 points and Stefan Jankovic 16 for Hawaii (28-5), which used a strong first half from Jankovic to lead by as many as 11, then withstood Jankovic’s foul trouble in the second half thanks largely to Smith.
Jordan Mathews led California with 23 points, but the loss ended a week the Bears would rather forget. The Bears played without popular assistant coach Yann Hufnagel, dismissed amid allegations of sexual harassment, and leading scorer Tyrone Wallace, who broke his hand Wednesday in practice. As if the Bears ( 23-11) needed more obstacles, guard Jabari Bird had back spasms during warmups and never played.
Coach Cuonzo Martin said it was about two minutes before tip that he found out Bird was unavailable.
Maryland 79, South Dakota State 74 SPOKANE, Wash. — A turnover by the Jackrabbits in the closing seconds helped the Terrapins avoid a place with all the other top seeds that lost in the first round.
Maryland did that thanks to a career-high 27 points from Jake Layman in a South Region game.
Deondre Parks fumbled a pass from Keaton Moffitt for No. 12 seed South Dakota State (268) in the closing seconds and Rasheed Sulaimon picked up the ball and stuffed it for the final score. The Jackrabbits were seeking their first victory in the NCAA tournament, but was undone by cold shooting in the first half.
“We knew about yesterday’s upsets,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “Today we obviously knew Hawaii beat Cal.”
Melo Trimble added 19 points and Jared Nickens 14 for fifth-seeded Maryland (26-8). Parks scored 22 points for the Jackrabbits.
Oregon 91, Holy Cross 52 SPOKANE, Wash. — Carrying the marquee for the underachieving Pac-12, the top-seeded Ducks showed no nerves in rolling past the Crusaders in a West Region first-round game.
Chris Boucher led Oregon (29-6) with 20 points, while Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook each added 11 points as the Ducks won their ninth straight and advanced to the round of 32 for the fourth straight season. They will play either St. Joseph’s or Cincinnati on Sunday.
The Ducks used their overwhelming athleticism to quickly build a double-digit lead and never allowed the Crusaders to sniff a potential upset.
Robert Champion led Holy Cross (15-20) with 22 points off the bench.