Wahine can’t
catch Cougars

The Houston Cougars pressed their way to a 66-55 victory over Hawaii in the opening game of the Ala Moana Hotel Paradise Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.

It was the 15th-ranked Cougars' ninth consecutive win and stopped the Rainbow Wahine winning streak at three.

Houston (9-0) can win the tournament today by beating Wake Forest (7-0) in a 5 p.m. game.

The Wahine did not show a lot of confidence in their shooting in the second half, especially while Houston was upping its lead to 47-32.

"Some of them got scared. We went 4 minutes where we didn't play, didn't think. The Cougars took advantage and rattled off nine points for a 15-point lead," said Hawaii coach Jim Bolla.

"We kept it ugly in the first half. I think we wanted it a little more. But I think they wanted it more in the second half and caught us at a time when we were trying to decide whether we want it or not."

Senior co-captain Milia Macfarlane agreed that some of the Wahine got tentative.

"We have to get out of that mode. We had the opportunities. We just didn't execute and didn't finish," said Macfarlane.

The first half was low-scoring, as Hawaii shot 28.6 percent from the field and Houston just 27 percent. The Wahine entered the game hitting 41.6 percent of their field-goal attempts, the Cougars 45 percent.

The Wahine got a quick start, making three of their first four shots from beyond the arc, two by Janevia Taylor and one by Amy Sanders, to take a 9-4 lead. Taylor's layup with 15:29 left in the half put Hawaii up 11-7, but that was the only basket the Wahine would score for the next 7 minutes.

WAC MEN SMU blows out Baylor DALLAS » Bryan Hopkins had 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Southern Methodist to a 77-43 victory over Baylor last night. Hopkins was 10-for-15 from the field and sank five 3-pointers. He also had five assists and made his only free throw. Eric Castro added 16 points for SMU (4-3), while Patrick Simpson had 12. Tommy Swanson led Baylor (2-3) with 19 points. SMU outrebounded Baylor 34-22 and scored 26 points off 20 Baylor turnovers. Rice 81, Lamar 75: At Houston, Michael Harris scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Rice, which beat Lamar. J.R. Harrison added 19 points on 9-for-11 shooting for the Owls (5-1). Brock Gillespie had 13. Alan Daniels led Lamar (4-3) with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Lamar outrebounded Rice 49-36 and built a 32-29 halftime lead but was plagued by poor shooting. Associated Press

The Cougars eased ahead 16-11, with Sancho Lyttle scoring five of Houston's nine points in the 9-0 run.

Hawaii would end its futility from the field with two fast-break layups off feeds from Jade Abele to Alofa Toiaivao and Sanders to closed to within one point, 16-15, with 7:23 to go.

The rest of the half was marked by turnovers and missed shots rather than scoring. The Wahine committed 12 turnovers in the half and Houston turned those into 10 points. Hawaii managed zero points off Houston's four turnovers.

Cougars ended up with a 23-19 lead at intermission.

The Wahine struggled to beat Houston's full-court press to start the second half and quickly fell behind 31-19. The Cougars exploited a 5-second violation on an inbounds play, three more Hawaii turnovers and two missed shots to score the first eight points of the second half.

"They just flew in yesterday. I thought we should have taken more risks on the fast break because we had more legs than they did. Their press caught me by surprise," said Abele, who did not have a good night from the field (3-for-9).

"I wasn't having a good 3-point night (0-for-4) I don't know why I didn't drive more. I was second-guessing myself," Abele said.

After Bolla called a timeout, buckets by Toiaivao, Macfarlane, Taylor and Abele cut the Houston lead to 38-32, but the Cougars came back with another 9-0 run for a 47-32 advantage with Lyttle contributing four points on easy baskets off steals.

After the Wahine's 12 consecutive missed treys, Taylor finally sank one with 8:30 left in the game to score Hawaii's first points in more than 3 minutes. The sophomore guard led Hawaii with 15 points.

However, with his team able to maintain a double-digit lead, Houston coach Joe Curl took the press off with 6:52 on the clock for the next 4 minutes. When Macfarlane's 3-pointer cut the Houston lead to nine points, 55-46, the press was back on.

The Wahine committed a season-high 23 turnovers.

Houston 66, Hawaii 55

Cougars (9-0)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Steele	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
Fryters	0	1	0	2	10	3	0	0
Andre	5	15	0	1	31	4	2	11
Overstreet	4	12	1	2	38	7	9	9
Lyttle	7	20	7	8	35	16	0	21
Creel	1	3	0	0	9	0	0	2
Simpson	3	8	1	2	27	7	3	7
Moore	0	1	0	0	3	0	1	0
Robinson	0	1	0	0	12	2	0	0
Harris	6	11	4	6	32	7	1	16
TEAM						2
Totals	26	72	13	21	200	48	16	66
Rainbow Wahine (3-3)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	6	14	0	0	34	8	1	15
Abele	3	9	2	3	38	8	6	8
Nishimoto	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
Sanders	3	11	0	0	25	7	2	8
Solia	0	5	0	0	21	4	2	0
Macfarlane	3	5	0	0	33	2	6	7
Spooner	2	2	0	0	5	1	0	4
Grice	1	4	0	0	17	1	0	2
Toiaivao	3	8	5	7	24	8	0	11
TEAM						4
Totals	21	58	7	10	200	43	17	55

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--Houston 23, Hawaii 19.
3-point goals--Houston 1-9 (Andre 1-5, Overstreet 0-1, Moore 0-1, Creel 0-2), Hawaii 6-21 (Taylor 3-7, Sanders 2-6, Macfarlane 1-3, Abele 0-4, Solia 0-1). Personal fouls--Houston 12, Hawaii 16.
Steals--Houston 15 (Lyttle 5, Andre 3, Overstreet 3, Harris 2, Simpson, Robinson); Hawaii 7 (Abele 2, Sanders 2, Macfarlane 2, Toiaivao). Blocked shots--Houston 1 (Harris); Hawaii 1 (Grice); Turnovers--Houston 12 (Overstreet 4, Lyttle 4, Andre 2, Simpson, Harris); Hawaii 23 (Solia 7, Macfarlane 4, Abele 3, Sanders 3, Toiaivao 3, Taylor, Grice, team). Officials--Apo, Barr, Hottendorf. A--940.