Wahine come back for an ugly victory

The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine survived a multitude of physical and mental errors to win their seventh consecutive contest, their last game heading into conference play.

The 516 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center last night watched the Wahine turn the ball over 28 times in a game that had 58 fouls whistled.

The 67-56 win over the Kent State Golden Flashes of the Mid-American Conference was the fourth time this season the Wahine have rallied after trailing at the half.

Kerrie James made one of two free throws to give Kent State its last lead, 41-40 with 12:09 to play. A half-minute later, Amy Sanders hit both ends of a 1-and-1 opportunity at 11:30 to put Hawaii ahead for good. Janevia Taylor hit a jumper 14 seconds later and Sanders sank two more tries from the foul line with 10:28 to go. Tanya Smith's putback at 9:54 gave UH a 48-41 lead.

The Golden Flashes (7-4) would close to within four points (58-54) on Malika Willoughby's field goal with 4:30 to go, but would score only twice more on free throws.

Hawaii (9-2), which went 30-for-41 from the charity stripe, would create some breathing room down the stretch as Taylor made two free throws, Brittany Grice hit three, Saundra Cariaga sank her two and Sanders finished the scoring with two more with 42 seconds left.

The first half was hectic and sloppy, with both teams committing turnovers (24) and fouls (29), blowing fast-break layups and passing to players cutting in a different direction. Execution was at a minimum.

"They were doing everything they could to keep Janevia from getting the ball upcourt. She had a big night in the first game and it took us awhile to adjust," Grice said. "They came in with a little more fire. They stepped up their play and we didn't adjust to the way the refs wanted us to play. They came with a little more fire. Fortunately, we had some people step up."

UH coach Jim Bolla spent much of the game shaking his head as the Wahine invented ways to lose the ball.

"I can't describe this game. I have no idea what was going on out there. There were times where we should have just handed them the ball, but it is a win for us," said Bolla.

UH had trouble getting the ball inbounds all night and Grice said it was because she didn't think the Wahine looked upcourt enough for all their options. What frustrated Bolla was the team had gone over breaking the Kent State press in practice earlier yesterday.

"We owe the fans a good game when we come back to play Louisiana Tech," said Grice.

Smith, with a career-high 15 points, tied Sanders for game-high scoring honors.

Both teams struggled to find the net in the first 9 minutes, going a combined 6-for-29 from the field.

After Hawaii's Dalia Solia scored on an 18-foot jumper 6 minutes into the half, the Wahine would not get another field goal until Smith put in a layup at 4:54, a drought lasting 9 minutes, 14 seconds. That bucket broke a 19-19 tie.

The Wahine held a 13-8 lead when Kent State's La'kia Stewart scored on a layup with 10:30 left in the half. The only scoring for UH after that until Smith's basket came from the foul line, where the Wahine were 8-for-10.

Kent State tied the score at 26 on a pair of free throws by Mallorie Griffith and went up by three points on Sarah Burgess' trey with 1:06 to play.

Two free throws by James with 26 seconds remaining left the Golden Flashes holding a 29-28 lead at the half.

The Wahine were so discombobulated starting the second half and unable to handle the Kent State fullcourt pressure that Bolla pulled his starters en masse 2 minutes into the half.

The Golden Flashes took advantage of the UH miscues to go ahead 35-30 at the 17:39 mark and 40-34 with 14:47 to play. Three minutes later the Wahine had the lead for good.

They wanted to pressure us and we were in a panic mode for some time," said Bolla. "The first group just wasn't jelling, so I took them out so (assistants) Pat (Charity) and Nicole (Brooks) could talk to them and settle them down," said Bolla. "The second group came in and did a good job."

UH would tie the score at 40-all on a reverse layup by Sanders, a short jumper from the right by Pam Tambini and Smith's putback.