Page the rage in Wahine victory
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Raylene Howard passes the ball around Rice's Jenny Cafferty during the Wahine's win last night.
She is tops in scoring and rebounding vs. Rice
By Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinKylie Page has been using the 3-pointer like a deadly dagger against opponents this season. But she says it's a little easier to hit the long shot in the U.S. than it was in her native Australia. The 6-foot, red-haired sophomore has nailed a team-leading 28 treys in helping the University of Hawaii women's basketball team to a 15-1 record and the 25th spot in the USA Today/ESPN poll.
She is only 12 3-pointers shy of the school season record of 40 set by Asiah Brooks during the 1989-90 season.
"It's to my advantage that the 3-point line is about three inches closer to the basket here than in Australia," Page said with a sly smile.
In the Wahine's 79-53 romp over Rice University last night at the Stan Sheriff Center, Page led all players in scoring with 23 points - 10-for-13 from the field and 2-for-2 on treys - and rebounding with 11.
The Wahine improved to 6-0 in the Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division. Rice fell to 3-3.
Southern Methodist beat Texas El Paso, 64-57, last night to keep pace at 6-1.
Before sitting with two fouls seven minutes into the game, Page had 11 points (5-for-5 from the field) and five boards to stake UH to a commanding 23-9 lead.
"If she hadn't been in foul trouble, she might have had 40 points," Rice coach Cristy McKinney said of Page.
"She's a very good player and you've got to play good defense on her. And we didn't play good defense. Hawaii played smarter and harder, and that's why they kicked our butts."
Page started the second half with Hawaii up, 38-21, and immediately hit a 3-pointer after a steal. That was the start of an eight-point run by Page, giving the Wahine a 46-23 lead.
"Even with a big lead, when you come out in the second half, it's like 0-0 again," said Page, who was named WAC Pacific Division Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 23 points and 4.5 rebounds a game in road wins at SMU and Texas Christian. "You want to get an extra 20-point lead if you can."
Page, whose trey with 23 seconds left was the critical play in the 74-68 come-from-behind win over SMU, said it was good to be back in front of the home crowd.
"This was for the crowd," Page said. "We wanted to give them what they've been missing while we were on the road. I'm sure they would've loved to be there in our overtime win (vs. TCU) and in our close one against SMU."
UH coach Vince Goo said Page benefited from the vision of Nani Cockett (19 points) and BJ Itoman (eight points), who had 14 assists between them.
"You've got to realize we had Nani looking for Kylie on the inside, and BJ looking for her on the inside, and when she hit a 3, it's because we were looking for her for the 3," Goo said. "So it takes a lot more than her scoring to win."
"She (Page) has been on fire, and I can't say enough about how she's been playing," said Cockett, who led the team in blocks (three) and steals (four) and had 10 rebounds.
Goo was happy with Hawaii's execution of the matchup zone defense.
The Wahine didn't commit a foul until 6:26 into the game, when they were ahead, 20-7.
"If you play smart defense, you don't have to foul," Goo said.
Hawaii 79, Rice 53
At Stan Sheriff Center
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp
Cafagna 28 3 9 2 2 2 2 8
Jordan 30 5 8 1 2 6 3 11
Hamilton 28 5 13 5 6 9 2 15
Wilson 24 3 6 3 3 4 3 9
Brumfield 28 2 16 3 4 5 3 7
Ludwig 16 0 5 0 0 2 1 0
Duncan 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
McIntosh 13 0 2 0 0 1 5 0
Cafferty 18 1 4 0 0 1 4 3
Koy 9 0 4 0 0 2 0 0
Team 2 Totals 200 19 68 14 17 34 23 53
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp
Page 22 10 13 1 1 11 3 23
Howard 27 4 7 1 2 1 3 9
Ashby 29 1 3 2 2 7 3 4
Cockett 34 7 12 4 4 10 0 19
Itoman 30 4 8 0 1 1 1 8
Forsberg 10 1 3 1 2 2 0 3
Kotilainen 7 0 0 2 2 1 1 2
Lee 5 0 1 2 2 2 1 2
Petersen 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Liu 16 1 3 1 2 3 1 3
Evers 7 1 1 2 2 1 1 4
Wautlet 10 0 1 0 0 1 1 0
Team 1 Totals 200 30 53 16 20 41 15 79
Halftime score-Hawaii 38, Rice 21. 3-point goals-Rice 1-14, Hawaii 3-5 (Page 2-2, Cockett 1-1, Forsberg 0-1, Lee 0-1). Assists-Rice 13, Hawaii 24 (Cockett 7, Itoman 7, Howard 4, Ashby 3, Page 1, Kotilainen 1, Lee 1). Turnovers-Rice 11, Hawaii 17 (Cockett 4, Page 3, Howard 3, Itoman 3, Ashby 2, Liu 1, Evers 1). Steals-Rice 9, Hawaii 8 (Cockett 4, Page 2, Howard 1, Evers 1). Blocks-Rice 0, Hawaii 5 (Cockett 3, Ashby 2).
A-1,773. Officials: Fujimoto, Gonzales, Johnson.
1997-98 Wahine Basketball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
