Historic win for Hawaii

SPOKANE, WASH. >> Eran Ganot sat by himself, folded against a table in a corner of his team’s deserted locker room. His shirt was soaked from a celebratory dousing. His phone buzzed incessantly on the tabletop.

“This thing’s going crazy,” Hawaii’s first-year head coach said. “What just happened here?”

Only the biggest victory in Rainbow Warriors basketball history.

UH advanced in the NCAA Tournament for the first time with a 77-66 dismissal of California, a reeling 4 seed that nevertheless commanded the full attention of the 13th-seeded ’Bows (28-5), who attained a program record for wins in a season.

As swiftly as the Rainbows cleared their lockers postgame in the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, they started thinking of heaping more history onto their growing pile of milestones. UH was one of six double-digit seeds to record an upset Friday, but it was still a remarkable achievement for a program that came up empty in its four previous NCAA appearances and hadn’t even had a chance since 2002.

And a program that’s banned from next year’s postseason by the governing body of that same acronym.

“It felt real good to get the first tournament win in UH history. It means a lot,” said point guard Roderick Bobbitt, who recorded 17 points, four assists and no turnovers. “Everyone’s excited, but everyone also knows that we’re not done yet, so we gotta put this game behind us and focus on (Maryland).”

The fifth-seeded Terrapins dispatched South Dakota State 79-74 right after UH’s daytime game, in which 500-plus UH fans were among the sellout crowd of 14,000. Big West champion Hawaii and Maryland (26-8) of the Big Ten meet at 1:10 p.m. Sunday with a South Region spot in the Sweet 16 in Louisville, Ky., on the line.

Hawaii? Sweet 16?

Nothing seems crazy to talk about for this emotional-turned-unflappable group, which improved to 11-2 on the mainland after negotiating its latest bout with foul trouble.

“Right now, we’re on a high horse,” said forward Stefan Jankovic, who scored 16 and could laugh afterward about missing 13 minutes of second-half crunch time because of the whistles.

Cal felt about as low as you could get. The Golden Bears (23-11) were without an assistant coach fired earlier in the week amid a sexual harassment scandal; its starting point guard, Tyrone Wallace, who broke his right hand on Wednesday; and a second member of its core five, Jabari Bird, who was scratched pregame with back spasms.

It was too much to overcome, especially in the face of Hawaii’s inspired play. UH seized the lead in the early going and was up six at halftime.

Guard Quincy Smith put in a career-high 19 points and forward Mike Thomas scored all of his nine in the second period. UH shot 51.9 percent to Cal’s 41.1 percent and made 20 of 25 free throws, 80 percent, making up for a minus-nine margin on the boards against the Bears’ huge front line.

Aaron Valdes went up high to throw down an inbounds pass from Bobbitt emphatically to go up 11 with 15:48 to play.

Cal had one good run in it, getting to within 47-46 with nine unanswered points, six by its backup point guard, Sam Singer, pressed into the starting lineup.

“They maintained their composure, they made plays,” Cal coach Cuonzo Martin said. “I think we were down one, we turned the ball over, the game changed from there.”

Valdes hit a baseline jumper and Thomas followed with his first basket on an inbounds play to re-establish control for UH.

Cal’s projected lottery picks, Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, couldn’t carry the load as freshmen. Brown had a nightmare game, four points on 1-for-6 shooting with seven turnovers. UH reserve Sheriff Drammeh changed the complexion of the game by taking two charges on Brown in the first half.

“It’s amazing. Sheriff is one of the best charge-takers I’ve ever seen,” forward Sai Tummala said. “Those are some of the biggest plays. We get a foul on their player, he fouled out in the second half because of one of his (earlier) charges.”

Bobbitt banked in a jump shot and Smith scored off a steal for a 61-53 lead, then Brown was disqualified on a loose ball with 6:22 to play.

The 6-foot-11 Rabb had 13 points and 12 rebounds but was far from dominant as UH guards applied effective help defense.

“We were going to try to do our work early and keep him away from those deep catches,” Ganot said. “And then if we were able to do that, it would allow our gnats, the rest of our team … (to help). It’s tough, because (Jordan) Mathews is such an elite shooter.”

Thomas hit a top-arc 3, answered immediately by one by Mathews, who scored a game-high 23 points.

Jankovic checked back in with 3:46 to play, UH up six. He immediately hit two at the line.

Smith followed with two free throws, while Bobbitt made a tough bank shot to go up 72-60.

Bobbitt, Thomas and Smith went 5-for-6 at the line to close it out.

For Ganot, it went back to a moment on the first day of the Diamond Head Classic, when the NCAA’s debilitating sanctions were announced, and his team responded with calculated fury.

“They chose the path of … of winners. The path of champions,” Ganot said. “The path of, the easy to say, hard to do. The path of controlling what we could control, and enjoying the moment.”

On to the next one.

HAWAII 77, CALIFORNIA 66

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 36, California 30 3-point goals — Hawaii 3-14 (Thomas 1-2, Tummala 1-2, Bobbitt 1-8, Jankovic 0-2). California 3-19 (Mathews 3-8, Rabb 0-1, Singer 0-1, Brown 0-2, Chauca 0-2, Domingo 0-2, Moute a Bidias 0-3). Steals — Hawaii 3 (Smith, Valdes, Tummala). California 3 (Singer 2, Mathews). Blocked shots — Hawaii 3 (Jankovic, Jovanovic, Thomas). California 1 (Rabb). Turnovers — Hawaii 11 (Smith 4, Valdes 3, Tummala 2, Drammeh, Jovanovic). California 16 (Brown 7, Singer 2, Chauca, Domingo, Mathews, Moute a Bidias, Okoroh, Rabb, Rooks). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Terry Oglesby, Darron George, Roderick Dixon. A — 14,000.