The University of Hawaii women's basketball team left a week ago with a decent 7-3 record but unsure what its first WAC road trip would bring. The Wahine returned home yesterday with a share of the early Pacific Division lead after wins at Fresno State and San Jose State.
"We're not a real veteran team so we had some real concerns going on the road," said Hawaii coach Vince Goo, whose team improved to 9-3. "We had a lot of questions about our young players. The bottom line is we made the smart plays and executed when we needed."
The youngest of the young Wahine came of age Saturday when freshman forward Raylene Howard scored 18 points in just 20 minutes of play. After Hawaii took a 45-22 lead into the locker room, Goo said he decided to sit Howard down and give some of the other post players playing time.
"Otherwise, Raylene would have scored a bunch," he said. "She came out so hot at the start (3 of 6 from 3-point range, 6 of 10 from the floor).
"It's nice to be at the top of the standings. The win at Fresno State (61-60 in overtime Thursday) was big. And for us to go 2-0 on the road to start ... we need to appreciate that."
Hawaii has the potential to go 4-0 to open the conference season. The Wahine face Air Force (3-9, 0-2), a Division II-team last season, on Thursday and then UNLV (2-11, 0-2) on Saturday.
"We know nothing about Air Force and UNLV has a new coach and a new system," Goo said. "It's early and you can't judge teams by their records. What we have to continue to do is draw the line between confidence and overconfidence. I think we did a nice job of that at San Jose State, especially since San Diego State had gone in (Thursday) and beat them bad (82-37).
"What we're happy about is we showed we can win on the road and we're very glad about that. That's a good for our team to know since we'll have a tough trip next week at Colorado State and Wyoming, the two teams leading our division."
Goo said he wasn't concerned about the slow start by junior guard Nani "Maika" Cockett, who went into the road trip as the WAC's leading scorer. Cockett finished with 20 points in the overtime win at Fresno State and had just six at San Jose State.
"Teams are really keying on Maika," Goo said. "It's early so teams don't know much about us. But they know, from looking at the stats, they need to key on her. She's playing well, doing other things for us. We're not concerned about the points. They'll come."