A quick preseason scan up and down the Hawaii men’s basketball roster revealed a few logical candidates for the Rainbow Warriors’ first Big West Conference player of the week.
Redshirt freshman guard Brandon Jawato was not at the top of that list. Yet it was the young Jawato, and not a member of UH’s vaunted frontcourt, who received UH’s inaugural BWC weekly honor on Monday after a landmark performance against UC Riverside on Saturday. Jawato tied the Big West and UH records for 3-pointers made without a miss by going 7-for-7 against the Highlanders, all in the first half for a career-high 21 points in a 76-61 win. He had two big second-half 3-pointers among 11 points in UH’s 90-88 comeback win over Cal State Fullerton on Thursday.
All told, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard from El Segundo, Calif., has been instrumental in the first 3-0 league start for UH (9-5 overall) since 2001-02. He’s scored in double figures in five of the past seven games.
He is the first UH freshman to win a conference weekly award, according to the school. No ‘Bows frosh received one in the Western Athletic Conference in 33 years in UH’s previous home.
"It feels great. I just want to continue helping my team out and just be a team player," Jawato said Monday just prior to boarding UH’s flight to California for the team’s first BWC road games at UC Irvine (7-9, 1-2 BWC) in a nationally televised game 6 p.m. Wednesday on ESPNU and Long Beach State (6-8, 2-1) on Saturday.
"Hopefully we can win this conference."
Jawato’s immediate family flew in for UH’s first three BWC games. Most notably, they were present for his unconscious first half against UCR, in which he came off the bench to set a UH freshman record for 3s made and tied Matt Lojeski’s 7-for-7 against Boise State on March 3, 2007.
Two other players in Big West history had 7-for-7 outings on 3s — UC Riverside’s Rickey Porter in 2006 vs. Pacific and UC Irvine’s Dylan Rigdon in 1990 vs. Cal State Fullerton.
"I’m kind of shocked. I don’t know, I just felt great that game," Jawato said. "I was knocking down my shots and hopefully I can have another game like that again."
As the half progressed, he proceeded to launch shots from farther and farther out until he was popping from NBA range. They all found the net and he matched the Highlanders’ 21 first-half points by himself.
"My teammates were just saying that I was on fire and that they want to try to shoot like me. It was just one of those nights, you know?" he said with a laugh.
Jawato was on pace to break Trevor Ruffin’s UH-record 10 3s in a game, but he missed most of the second half due to leg cramps.
Jawato has hit his last nine 3s going back to the second half of UH’s win over Fullerton.
