DePaul is class of the Classic

DePaul ran away from the Wisconsin Badgers in the second half of last night's championship game of the 27th annual Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic.

All-Tournament Team Kate Benz, Washington State; Danielle Gant, Texas A&M, Amy Sanders, Hawaii; Janese Banks and Jolene Anderson, Wisconsin; Allie Quigley and Jenna Rubino, DePaul. MVP: Khara Smith, DePaul.

The No. 17 Blue Demons (5-0) turned a three-point halftime lead into a 76-57 victory with the help of a full-court press that harassed the Badgers, who hit 38 percent of their shots in the opening half, into a .214 field-goal percentage in the second half.

"It was due to the effort of our kids. We work to wear people out. We have a lot of depth and we use it," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. "It's all about having players and we won because we have three on the all-tournament team."

Khara Smith (24 points), Jenna Rubino (17 points) and Allie Quigley (14 points) were DePaul's offensive leaders.

Janese Banks led Wisconsin (4-1) with 17 points.

The Rainbow Wahine (3-2) overcame a terrible start to take third place with a thrilling 68-66 win over the Texas A&M Aggies (2-2) on Amy Sanders' rebound and layup with 2 seconds to play.

It was UH's best finish since coming in third during the 2001-02 season.

The Wahine played without starting point guard Janevia Taylor, who was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team.

"We went zone the whole game. The Aggies are too athletic for us to play man," Hawaii coach Jim Bolla said. "They are not a good shooting team, but they shoot a lot so the key for us was rebounds and not giving them second chances."

The Aggies made 44 percent of their field goals in the first half, but after UH adjusted to take away the jump shot in the lane, the A&M field-goal percentage fell to 23 in the second half.

The Aggies held a 47-37 lead with 15:38 to play, then failed to score over the next 5 minutes as Hawaii ran off 11 consecutive points for its first lead of the game.

The lead changed hands nine times before Tanya Smith took a feed from Brittany Grice and hit a layup for a 64-63 UH lead with 1:26 on the clock.

After the Wahine defense forced an A&M shot-clock violation, Cassidy Chretien drove the right side for a layup with 34 seconds left and a 66-63 lead.

Chretien, a junior-college transfer who joined the program this year, had played just 9 minutes in two games before yesterday, but finished with 13 points while sharing point-guard duties with Amy Kotani.

Following an A&M timeout, A'Quonesia Franklin sank a 3-pointer to tie the score. The Aggies did not press as Chretien brought the ball upcourt for the final 16 seconds.

"We ran the same play as before," Bolla said. "They weren't ready for Cassidy's speed coming off the screen. She turns the corner quick."

Chart | Click to enlarge

Chretien's first option was Sanders on the left side, but she was covered. Her next key was if the A&M post player jumped out to guard her at the top of the key.

"Their post player didn't jump out and I actually should have passed the ball back to the backside, but I didn't know how much time there was on the clock, so I powered up," said Chretien, who drove the right side for a layup attempt.

"I saw her (Chretien) driving and there were three huge people around her and it wasn't looking good," said Sanders, who had moved toward the top of the key.

"I rolled to the left side of the basket, caught the ball, dribbled once to make sure I was in front of the basket and had a clean shot," said Sanders who led UH with 14 points.

Texas A&M had sprinted to a 13-0 lead in the first 2 1/2 minutes. Tamea Scales scored six of those points on a putback and two layups off of steals.

The Wahine were guilty of five turnovers and missed their first three field-goal attempts during that span. They finally scored with 16:54 left on a turnaround jumper by Brittany Grice. Dalia Solia, getting her first start of the season, hit a jumper and layup. After Morenike Atunrase sank a trey, Smith connected on consecutive layups to put UH back in the game, down 16-10.

"We didn't have our primary ball handler so we had to fight through it. I wasn't going to call time because that concedes they are kicking our backside," Bolla said. "Once we got over the initial shock, we were able to play."

Solia played a career-high 33 minutes and scored 10 points.

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