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Wahine shake On a misty Manoa night tears fell inside the Stan Sheriff Center as Hawaii bid aloha to seniors Janka Gabrielova and Karena Greeny.
Broncos in finale
Allen's big game on Senior
Night lands UH in second-place tieBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com
A Stan Sheriff crowd of 1,757 (2,438 tickets issued) watched the Rainbow Wahine close conference play with a 65-54 win over Boise State. Hawaii (21-6, 14-4) finishes tied for second in the Western Athletic Conference and earns the No. 3 seed in the Williams WAC Tournament next week in Tulsa. Boise State drops to 9-19, 5-13 and will be the eighth seed in the tournament.
"This was definitely for the seniors," Chelsea Wagner said. "They're the ones that got us here. They were in a little bit of foul trouble, but they're there every night. They're the heart and soul of the team, they really are because they're the ones that bring us together. They make the big shots. They were awesome."
The seniors weren't so amazing early in the game. But Greeny made up for it with nine points in the second half. Gabrielova contributed four assists, three steals, and six points in her final home game.
Natasja Allen led the Wahine with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Wagner added 15 points.
After being in foul trouble in the first half, Greeny picked up the slack in the second half and started a Wahine run with a 3-point play that put Hawaii up for good. Wagner knocked in another 3-pointer for a 56-43 lead. Hawaii's lead dipped below 10 in the second half when Mandy Welch popped a 3-pointer that cut the advantage to 58-51. The Wahine hit 5 of 7 baskets from the charity stripe in the waning minutes of the game to hold off the Broncos.
Hawaii took advantage of its trips to the line, connecting on 21 for 27 free throws. It was an all-around better performance for Hawaii in the second half.
"We defended well in the second half," Hawaii coach Vince Goo said. We let them penetrate and we had a lot of fouls in the first half.
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"We weren't playing smart with three people sitting on the bench with two fouls. We did a lot better job in the second half."Hawaii used its size advantage early as Allen and Christen Roper scored on putbacks. The Wahine grabbed a 12-7 lead when Wagner drained her first trey. Hawaii denied the ball inside and forced the Broncos to shoot from the outside. Boise State's first 10 points were from beyond the arc or at the free-throw line. Gabrielova's bulldozing layup through three defenders gave the Wahine a 17-10 lead with 13:34 to go.
But when Greeny picked up her second foul minutes later, she joined Roper -- who had been in foul trouble since the opening minutes of the game -- on the bench.
The Broncos took advantage and scored their next four baskets inside the paint. The 8-0 run cut Hawaii's lead to 19-18. That was the closest Boise State would get as Hawaii went on an 8-1 run. Christa Brossman's baseline drive gave the Wahine its first double-digit lead at 29-19.
The Broncos didn't score again from the field until Camille Woodfield's layup at 1:47 ended the drought. The Wahine squeezed one more basket from Wagner, who took it to the hole with 37 seconds left for a 34-25 lead at intermission.
Boise State shot a mere 23.3 percent from the field in the first half while Hawaii shot 32 percent. Allen led the Wahine with 11 points in the first half.
"Both teams came out and played hard. We just weren't shooting the ball very well," Broncos coach Trisha Stevens said. "I give a lot of credit to their defense. They're very solid defensively so it was a combination of their defense and a lot of open looks we weren't knocking down."
Hawaii leaves today for the WAC tournament in Tulsa. The Wahine play sixth-seeded Nevada on Wednesday.
Rice defeated Tulsa 71-59 yesterday to tie the Wahine for second place in the conference. But the Lady Owls win the tie-breaker by virtue of sweeping the season series. Conference winner Louisiana Tech is the top seed.
Final WAC standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L *La. Tech 17 1 .944 -- 22 4 Rice 14 4 .778 3 20 7 Hawaii 14 4 .778 3 21 6 San Jose St. 12 6 .667 5 17 10 Tulsa 11 7 .611 6 16 12 Nevada 6 12 .333 11 9 18 SMU 6 12 .333 11 11 17 Boise St. 5 13 .278 12 9 19 Fresno St. 4 14 .222 13 9 19 UTEP 1 17 .056 16 3 24 Yesterday
Hawaii 65, Boise State 54
Rice 71, Tulsa 59
SMU 68, Fresno St. 64
Louisiana Tech 95, Nevada 63
San Jose St. 87, UTEP 57
End regular season
WAC tournament seeds
1. Louisiana Tech
2. Rice
3. Hawaii
4. San Jose State
5. Tulsa
6. Nevada
7. SMU
8. Boise State
9. Fresno State
10. UTEP
Hawaii 65, Boise State 54
WOLFPACK (9-16, 6-10) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Binford 1 4 1 2 14 2 3 4 Vaughan 1 3 0 0 10 1 3 2 Welch 3 6 3 4 25 1 0 12 Nash 2 9 2 3 29 5 1 7 Woodard 2 11 1 2 31 5 5 5 Nakashima 1 2 0 0 6 1 3 2 Ramirez 2 6 0 0 19 6 0 4 Crockett 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 Swindall 3 8 0 0 2 7 0 6 Peterson 3 10 4 4 29 5 0 8 Grant 0 0 2 7 20 2 0 4 Team 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 Totals 18 59 13 22 200 35 6 54 WAHINE (21-6, 14-4) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Willoughby 1 7 0 0 21 5 0 2 Abele 1 4 0 0 11 2 0 2 Macfarlane 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 Gabrielova 1 6 4 4 30 2 4 6 Roper 2 5 0 3 17 4 0 4 Brossman 2 4 1 2 17 5 2 5 Gabriel 0 1 0 0 9 1 1 0 Allen 8 16 6 8 32 14 2 22 Greeny 3 7 3 3 24 5 1 9 Wagner 3 7 7 7 35 5 1 15 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 21 58 21 27 200 48 11 65 Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime-Hawaii 34, Boise St. 25.
3-point goals-- Hawaii 2-9 (Wagner 2-4, Greeny 0-2, Gabrielova 0-3), Boise St. 5-13(Welch 3-4, nash 1-3, Binford 1-2, Vaughan 0-2, Nakashima 0-1, Ramirez 0-1). Personal fouls-- Hawaii 17, Boise St. 19. Technical fouls--none. Steals-- Hawaii 6 (Gabrielova 3, willoughby 2, Macfarlane); Boise St. 3 (Vaughan, Welch, Peterson). Blocked shots-- Hawaii 6 (Allen 2, Greeny 2, Roper, Willoughby); Boise St. 5 (Swindall 3, Peterson 2); Turnovers-- Hawaii 14 (Gabrielova 4, Wagner 3, Allen 2, Willoughby 2, Abele 2, Roper); Boise St. 12 (Woodfield 4, Grant 3, Binford 2, TEAM 2, Nakashima). Officials--Hernandez, Johnson, Wells.
UH Athletics