The University of Hawaii women's basketball team is atop the WAC standings at 4-0, 11-3 overall, after running away from UNLV, 77-59 Saturday. Next on the Wahine's agenda is their first conference road trip in altitude, to Colorado State (12-2, 3-0) Thursday and Wyoming (10-4, 2-1) Saturday.
"The next two weeks are going to be tough," said UH assistant coach Da Houl. "There's this road trip against two of the top teams in the WAC, then we'll have San Diego State and New Mexico at home the week after.
"Offensively, we're playing well and scoring. We had five people in double figures Saturday. But it's a big concern about our post people no boarding. That's going to catch up with us."
In winning its 11th straight, Hawaii outrebounded UNLV, 46-45, led by forward Brandi Ashby's eight. But the Wahine guards - BJ Itoman (6), Nani Cockett (5), Liisa Kotilainen (4) and Tiffany Fujimoto (4) - accounted for half of the team's remaining rebounds.
As for the altitude, "We're not even going to talk about," said Houl. "The players know what they need to do. They've been on their high altitude diet, drinking lots of water and doing other things."
The only elevation Hawaii is concerned with is elevating its game. Beating the four bottom teams in the WAC looks good in the win-loss column but Wahine know they need to take their game to another level this week, a level that is not measured in feet about sea level.
"We haven't had the competition in league so far that we had in the preseason," said Houl.
"I think our preseason scheduled helped us a lot. But we need to bring our game up for this road trip.
"We saw some good things Saturday. We got balanced scoring and it was good to see Liisa Kotilainen finally show what she's been doing in practice during a game."
Junior transfer Kotilainen, the Pac-10 3-point percentage leader two years ago while playing for Arizona State, was 3 of 4 from long range Saturday en route to 12 points.
Also coming into her own is Itoman, who opened and closed the first half with breakaway lay-ups. The sophomore point guard finished with 15 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and a block.