Maryland run foils Hawaii's upset bid

SPOKANE — Late in the game with the outcome decided, Hawaii junior forward Stefan Jankovic went up for a shot in traffic near the hoop.

There was some contact, the shot didn’t go in.

As Jankovic got up, he gave the nearest official a good long stare.

Hawaii got a taste of physical, big-boy basketball Sunday night in a second-round NCAA tournament game at the Spokane Arena, and for the most part dealt with it as best it could.

But a 14-0 run by fifth-seeded Maryland in the middle of the second half proved fatal, and the 13th-seeded Rainbow Warriors are headed home after three straight weeks on the road following a 73-60 loss.

“That stretch in the second half was a big hammer,” Hawaii coach Eran Ganot said.

Hawaii, which set a school record for wins, and notched its first NCAA tourney win just two days earlier, finishes 28-6.

Meanwhile, Maryland (27-8) is headed to Louisville for a date with Kansas on Thursday in a South Regional semifinal.

Hawaii fans again made plenty of noise from the start at the Arena, waving their banana leaves and singing the state song. The Rainbow Warriors kept Maryland from delivering the knockout punch early. The Terrapins led 28-27 at halftime.

The bigger, more physical Terps pushed Hawaii away from the hoop, forcing the Warriors to settle for jump shots. Still, Hawaii led 41-39 on Quincy Smith’s layup with 11:22 to play.

Then everything changed.

Rasheed Sulaimon of Maryland tied it with a layup, then lobbed to Diamond Stone for a slam dunk. A Sulaimon steal led to a dunk by Jake Layman, and Melo Trimble’s 3 made it 48-41 Maryland, and forced a timeout by Hawaii.

Then Layman scored on the drive, and Robert Carter added a 3-point play with 8:25 remaining to complete the run.

“Give Hawaii credit; what a great year they had,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “I thought they got a little bit tired at the end, and we were able to get out and run.”

Hawaii fans were irate over the free-throw disparity. Maryland took 12 free throws in the first half to 0 for Hawaii, and the Rainbow Warriors only took 1 in the first 32-plus minutes of the game.

“That’s how the ball bounces sometimes,” said Hawaii junior forward Mike Thomas, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds. “Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don’t. That’s the way it goes.”

“That’s on us,” Ganot said. “We’ve got to be stronger in the paint.”

A bigger problem was Hawaii going 7:28 between field goals in the second half. The Warriors went 1 for 17 from the field in one stretch, including 10 misses in a row.

“Credit to Maryland’s defense; it was tough,” Jankovic said. “But we didn’t make shots we should make. Maryland played great defense, but we missed a lot of layups, and missed a lot of shots that we usually make.”

“I thought the biggest key in that stretch was giving them some runouts,” Ganot said.

Trimble scored a game-high 24 points for Maryland.

Jankovic had 14 for Hawaii on 5-of-17 shooting. The Warriors, who haven’t been home since March 1 (they played two Big West games, then played in the conference tournament, they stayed on the mainland for the NCAAs) shot 23 of 70 (32.9 percent) from the field.