Wahine come up
short at Rice

The Hawaii women's basketball team suffered another agonizing loss to Rice last night in its final Western Athletic Conference visit to Houston.

The Rainbow Wahine had two shots at the basket in the final 8 seconds but failed to convert in falling to the Owls 70-68.

The frustrating defeat was similar to the one UH (8-7, 4-4 WAC) had to swallow last year at Autry Court when Lindsey Maynard scored twice in the final 58 seconds for a 58-56 Rice victory.

"I take responsibility," UH coach Jim Bolla said. "I didn't have them ready. Rice pressed us full court. The few times we attacked the press, we got layups. But too often we went back to our dribbling game.

"I probably should have gone over (breaking the press) more in practice. We also got beat in transition too many times."

The Owls (12-7, 5-3), moving to Conference USA next year, have beaten the Wahine five straight times and won all seven WAC home games against Hawaii.

Last night, the Wahine fought back for a chance to win or send the game into overtime by holding Rice scoreless for 2 minutes. The Owls led 70-61 with 2:23 remaining before Hawaii closed the gap on a jumper by Amy Sanders, a layup by Alofa Toiaivao and Jade Abele's 3-pointer with 36 seconds left.

With 8 seconds to go, Bolla called a timeout to set up the last shot. Sanders' 3-point jumper was off the rim and a follow shot by Abele was short as the final horn sounded.

"We ran a sideline play and got two good looks at the basket," said Bolla. "We had a chance to win it. We had chances to win it earlier. We gave this one away."

The most telling statistic was UH's 26 turnovers that the Owls converted into 30 points. The Wahine had a 47-37 rebound advantage and shot 43 percent from the field compared to Rice's 36 percent.

There were eight lead changes in the first half, and Rice led 34-30 at the break. The Owls took a five-point lead briefly, but the remainder of the half was a seesaw battle.

"In the beginning of the game, we made poor decisions," Bolla said. "We threw the ball not even close to where we were supposed to throw it. It wasn't like there was a defender there. We didn't pass the ball the way we did against UTEP and Boise.

"We played poorly in the first. We didn't decide to play until the end. What makes it worse is San Jose State beat Tulsa."

Had Hawaii won, the Wahine would have tied Tulsa (13-5, 5-3) for third place. The Wahine play the Golden Hurricane tomorrow (3 p.m. Hawaii time).

In the second half, the teams traded spurts, as Rice scored the first six points only to have the Wahine respond with an 8-2 run with Toiaivao working well inside and sinking two layups.

Lauren Neaves made three free throws, and buckets by Krystal Frazier and Amber Cunningham boosted Rice's advantage to 49-38 with 14:12 left in the half. The Owls' biggest lead (55-43) came at the 11:31 mark on an Anne Peck layup.

Sanders led UH with 18 points, while Frazier was high for Rice with 16.

WAC standings

	WAC	Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Louisiana Tech	7	1	.875	--	11	5
SMU	5	3	.625	2	14	4
Tulsa	5	3	.625	2	13	5
San Jose State	5	3	.625	2	12	6
Rice	5	3	.625	2	12	7
Hawaii	4	4	.500	3	8	7
Fresno State	3	5	.375	4	11	6
UTEP	3	5	.375	4	8	10
Boise State	2	6	.250	5	7	10
Nevada	1	7	.125	6	5	13

Yesterday's games
Rice 70, Hawaii 68
Boise State 62, Louisiana Tech 59
San Jose State 61, Tulsa 53
SMU 71, UTEP 64
Tomorrow's games (Jan. 29)
Hawaii at Tulsa, 10 a.m. HST
SMU at Boise State
Fresno State at Nevada
San Jose State at Rice
Louisiana Tech at UTEP

Rice 70, Hawaii 68

Rainbow Wahine (8-7, 4-4 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Abele	5	10	0	0	34	6	1	12
Sanders	7	15	4	5	38	9	2	18
Grice	4	6	4	5	28	6	0	12
Toiaivao	6	14	1	3	27	8	3	13
Macfarlane	1	4	1	2	33	3	2	4
Taylor	2	7	2	2	25	7	3	6
Nishimoto	0	2	0	0	8	2	0	0
Spooner	1	2	1	1	7	2	0	3
Team						4
Totals	26	60	13	18	200	47	11	68
Lady Owls (12-7, 5-3 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Peck	5	11	0	0	24	7	0	10
Neaves	3	12	7	10	26	7	0	13
Fulton	3	13	4	4	23	2	1	11
Frazier	8	15	0	0	35	4	6	16
Elder	1	1	0	0	20	1	4	3
Riverin	2	4	1	1	21	4	2	5
McCauley	1	2	0	0	5	0	0	3
Stovall	0	2	1	2	12	4	3	1
Berezhinska	1	2	2	2	11	1	1	4
Cunningham	1	4	2	2	16	3	1	4
Loggins	0	3	0	0	7	2	0	0
Team						2
Totals	25	69	17	21	200	37	18	70

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime -- Rice 34, Hawaii 30.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 3-12 (Abele 2-4, Macfarlane 1-1, Nishimoto 0-1, Taylor 0-2, Sanders 0-4), Rice 3-12 (Elder 1-1, McCauley 1-2, Fulton 1-5, Frazier 0-1, Riverin 0-1, Cunningham 0-2). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 17, Rice 19. Fouled out -- Grice.
Steals -- Hawaii 11 (Taylor 3, Macfarlane 2, Sanders 2, Grice 2, Toiaivao, Nishimoto), Rice 14 (Frazier 3, Stovall 3, Fulton 2, Peck 2, Neaves, Elder, Berezhinska, Cunningham). Blocked shots -- Hawaii 7 (Grice 3, Toiaivao 3, Taylor), Rice 4 (Berezhinska 2, Riverin, Neaves). Turnovers -- Hawaii 26 (Toiaivao 7, Macfarlane 6, Abele 6, Sanders 2, Taylor 2, Grice, Nishimoto, Spooner), Rice 17 (Frazier 4, Peck 2, Neaves 2, Fulton 2, Elder 2, Cunningham 2, Berezhinska, Stovall, McCauley). Officials -- Jones, Morris, Schlabach. A -- 233.