By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Nani Cockett makes a move to the basket against
Arkansas State's Rebecca Dudic yesterday.
Cockett hobbled
By Al Chase
but Wahine win
Star-BulletinNani Cockett sat on the trainer's table, her right foot encased in a walking boot complete with an electronic muscle stimulator to keep her sprained ankle from swelling overnight. The senior co-captain measured each word, yet spoke quietly, a sharp contrast to the determination she wore on her face during the second half of the University of Hawaii's 85-75 victory over Arkansas State yesterday at the Special Events Arena.
The win puts the Wahine (5-1) in tonight's Hawaii Invitational basketball tournament championship game against DePaul, a 59-56 winner over the University of San Francisco in yesterday's first game.
Cockett wasn't talking about her injured ankle or the hard foul that sent her crashing to the floor one minute and 28 seconds into the second half. No, she was talking team and the way the Wahine had played, herself included, the last 10 minutes of the first half.
UH held a 13-point lead (28-15) with 6:29 to go in the opening half when things suddenly fell apart and the Lady Indians (6-3) rallied to trail by two (34-32) at intermission.
"I was very upset. Their last shot was embarrassing," Cockett said.
Julie Haygood, who led Arkansas State with 19 points, had controlled a loose ball in the UH end with 5.8 seconds left, dribbled the length of the floor basically uncontested and scored on a driving layup with .02 on the clock to punctuate the Lady Indians' 17-6 run.
"We just stopped talking, didn't communicate and needed more emotion," said Raylene Howard, who was open for six of the first seven UH shots and scored 10 quick points.
The emotion that burned within Cockett was evident each time she was on the floor in the second half.
"I wanted to try and create a spark for the team," said Cockett, who led the Wahine with 23 points. "I was not going to be satisfied with another loss. We let the Iowa State game go (two-point loss Nov. 30) and we couldn't let it happen twice in a row."
Cockett started the second half with two quick layups sandwiched around a BJ Itoman layin for a six-point (40-34) lead, but Cockett went out with the sprained ankle after the second bucket.
Howard, who finished with 21 points, scored five and Itoman four over the next seven minutes, but Arkansas State pulled even at 51-all on a 3-pointer by Rebecca Dudic with 12:03 to play.
Cockett, with her right ankle retaped, came back after a timeout and promptly stole the ball and, though grimacing on the first two steps, drove the floor for a layup.
Kellina Bradshaw's 3-pointer gave ASU its final lead, 54-53, but Kylie Page's jumper erased that and Cockett followed with a three-point play for a four-point UH lead, 58-54.
A Howard bucket, two free throws by Itoman and a Page layup were matched by six points from Cockett as UH surged ahead, 73-64.
Cockett sat out the last four minutes, but her teammates made 9-of-13 free throws during that stretch and got a big 3-pointer from Page to hold off the Lady Indians.
"It gave us great confidence to see Nani come back in," Howard said. "She wasn't worried about her ankle, she just wanted to play."
"The times I was in I wanted the ball. I wanted to score just as everyone else did," Cockett said. "I felt we came together in the second half, communicated with each other and trusted in each other."
The Wahine also tried to penetrate more in the second half, even sending Itoman, a 5-foot-5 guard, on driving forays to the basket.
"We saw where they gave up 51 free throws in an earlier game, so we wanted to take it to the basket," UH coach Vince Goo said.
DePaul 59, San Francisco 56: Guard Anne McDonald broke a 56-56 tie with a driving layup with 44 second to play and Fuchsai Forrester added a free throw 19 seconds from the end to cap the Blue Demons (3-2). Forrester led DePaul with 18 points and McDonald had 12.
Jennifer Madkins paced the Lady Dons (2-4) with 21 points .
At Special Events Arena Box score
Hawaii 85, Arkansas St. 75
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Dudic 28 4 11 0 1 6 2 10 Towne 38 4 15 0 0 4 4 12 Muirhead 14 3 7 0 0 8 3 6 Evans 23 4 9 0 0 8 4 8 Hagood 37 8 16 0 0 5 5 19 Smith 17 2 4 0 0 1 5 4 Soukupova 10 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Bradshaw 15 2 7 4 4 2 4 9 Chatman 18 2 2 3 6 5 2 7 Team 3 Totals 200 29 71 7 12 43 29 75
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Page 37 6 13 2 4 2 4 16 Ashby 37 1 2 3 7 13 2 5 Howard 34 6 12 8 10 4 2 21 Cockett 26 8 14 7 7 4 3 23 Itoman 37 5 11 6 8 4 0 17 Forsberg 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Petersen 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Evers 20 0 2 3 4 4 2 3 Wautlet 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 Team 1 Totals 200 26 55 29 40 35 14 85Halftime score--Hawaii 34, Arkansas St. 32.3-point goals--Arkansas St. 10-25 (Towne 4-11, Hagood 3-4, Dudic 2-7, Bradshaw 1-3), UH 4-13 (Page 2-6, Itoman 1-1, Howard 1-4, Evers 0-2).
Assists--Arkansas St. 17 (Towne 6), UH 19 (Itoman 6). Turnovers--Arkansas St. 21, UH 16. Steals--Arkansas St. 10 (Towne 4), UH 9 (Cockett 4). Blocked shots--Arkansas St. 4 (Chatman, Dudic, Hagood, Muirhead 1). UH 4 (Ashby, Cockett 2).
A--1,296. Officials: Dubas, Yamasaki, Tanibe.
DePaul: Udoka 4-10 2-6 10, Forrester 5-11 8-14 18, Burge 3-7 2-2 8, McDonald 6-16 0-0 12, Watson 3-7 0-0 9, McManaman 0-0 0-0 0, Krumrei 1-4 0-0 2, Blankson 0-1 0-0 0, Fitzgerald 0-3 0-0 0, Novick 0-1 0-0 0, Blakeslee 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-61 12-22 59.
San Francisco: Wanless 3-7 2-5 9, Birincioglu 0-4 0-0 0, Woods 1-3 1-2 4, Madkins 8-13 4-5 21, Huff 1-7 1-2 3, Jennings 1-5 0-0 3, Tasnadi 7-12 1-1 17, Harris 0-1 0-0 0, Webb 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-54 9-15 56.
Halftime--DePaul 24, San Francisco 23.
3-point goals--DePaul 3-12 (Watson 3-6, McDonald 0-5, Krumrei 0-1), USF 5-10 (Tasnadi 2-3, Jennings 1-2, Madkins 1-2, Wanless 1-2, Huff 0-1). Total fouls--DePaul 17, USF 17. Fouled out--Madkins. Rebounds--DePaul 48 (Udoka 12), USF 32 (Madkins, Wanless 7). Assists--DePaul 10 (Krumrei, McDonald 3), USF 14 (Huff 6). Steals--DePaul 9 (Udoka 3), USF 8 (Madkins 4). Blocked shots--DePaul 4 (Burge, Udoka 2), USF 6 (Tasnadi, Woods 2). Turnovers--DePaul 16, USF 17. Officials--Gonzales, Lewis, Nunokawa.
1997-98 Wahine Basketball
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