‘Bows out to make ‘Five-0’ a reality show

So far, no member of the Big West Conference has proven it can fly across the Pacific Ocean and beat Hawaii at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The second-place Rainbow Warriors want to keep it that way today against seventh-place UC Davis in the final men’s hoops game at the Sheriff — where they are 4-0 in league play — until Feb. 7.

"At the beginning of the season we set a goal not to lose at home. We lost at home in some (nonconference) games, but our new goal is not to lose at home in conference," said freshman forward Isaac Fotu, the Big West leader in field-goal percentage at .639. "There’s a lot of pride at stake, a lot on the line."

The ‘Bows averted their first three-game losing streak of the season with a 60-52 victory over Pacific on Thursday. The game was not decided until the final minute, when senior center Vander Joaquim had a key 3-pointer.

Hawaii plays its next four games on the road after this one, so closing out the home-friendly part of the schedule strong is imperative to staying in the league’s upper half.

"Every game, the importance becomes greater and greater," coach Gib Arnold said. "This is our last home game for three weeks, so we need to do our best. You need to hold home court. I really believe the team that’s gonna win this conference is the one that’s gonna hold home court and be able to steal some on the road. We haven’t been able to do that on the road yet (0-2), but so far so good at home."

UC Davis’ program has yet to find its footing since coming up to Division I and joining the Big West in 2007. But the Aggies are looking frisky this season; they’re coming off a 74-71 win at Cal State Northridge on Thursday and stunned then-league leader Cal Poly at the buzzer on Jan. 10, 69-67.

Joaquim is now a card-carrying member of UH’s 15-man 1,000-point club. He had 16 points and nine rebounds against Pacific to raise his season averages to 14.4 and 8.5.

The other big subplot was the emergence of freshman Ozren Pavlovic, who took the reins at point guard for 28 minutes against the Tigers and scored 13 points with four assists against five turnovers. He practiced with the first team on Friday and is a possible, even likely starter against the Aggies.

"Yeah, I’m confident in how he played," Arnold said of that notion. "For the first time with a lot of minutes doing that, I thought he did a good job. Obviously, as an entire team we need to work on the turnovers (season-high 23 vs. Pacific) and being more efficient offensively as he plays more and more."

UH’s usual advantage on the backboards — a plus-8.2 margin, 16th in the country — will be tested. Second-year Davis coach Jim Les has some of the best size in the league to call upon and a pair of potent scorers. The Aggies have exceeded last season’s overall win total (5-26).

Davis comes at teams with a one-two guard combination of slashing sophomore Corey Hawkins (17.9 ppg) and sharpshooting junior Ryan Sypkens (14.2).

"They’re both very skilled offensively, and also have shown the ability to help us rebound and they draw a lot of attention," Les said. "They’ve been finding the open man."

Sypkens entered the week ranked No. 7 in the country with a .483 3-point percentage, and No. 8 in 3-pointers made at 3.63 per game. He had eight 3-pointers in a one-point loss at Nevada.

Hawkins’ .905 free-throw percentage is the best in the Big West. He’s the conference’s fourth-leading scorer. His father is Hersey Hawkins, who played 13 years in the NBA. He lived up to his family name with a buzzer-beating shot to defeat Cal Poly. The Aggies, who started the season 1-6, have been riding high since then.

UH senior wing Hauns Brereton enjoyed a mini-resurgence against Pacific. He had 11 first-half points on 4-for-4 shooting, his first time in double-figure scoring in 10 games.

"The first one went in, and once the first one goes in it feels good," Brereton said. "When it goes in I want to put up the next one. My teammates found me in transition, and that’s what I had to do."