Rainbow Wahine finally seal the deal

Tired of seeing other teams celebrate in their arena, the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine finally pulled out a close game at home with a 72-67 Western Athletic Conference win over Boise State last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Wahine (14-8, 5-6 WAC) won at home for just the second time in 2006 to split their homestand and avenge a loss to the Broncos last month in Boise.

The frustration was mounting after losing in overtime twice earlier this season and letting a chance to upset WAC co-leader Fresno State elude their grasp on Thursday. This time, UH executed its offense down the stretch and held off the Broncos in the final minutes.

UH guard Dalia Solia, held to two points in the first half, sparked the Wahine with four 3-pointers in the second and finished with a team-high 17 points.

"It feels really good to finally finish a game at home and not let this one get away," Solia said.

"My teammates and coaches told me to keep shooting even though I was 0-for-something in the first half. After my first shot (of the second half) I caught fire."

UH heads back on the road this week and enters Saturday's game at Utah State tied with Nevada for fourth place in the conference.

The Broncos fell to 12-11 and 4-7 and dropped into a tie for seventh place with their third straight loss. The defeat also extended BSU's WAC road losing streak to 22 games.

The Wahine cut their turnovers from 26 in their loss to Fresno State two nights earlier to a season-low 10 last night. On the defensive end, UH had 13 steals, 10 coming in the first half.

Pam Tambini, starting for the second straight game after sitting out the previous five, scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half and also posted six rebounds and five assists. Guard Amy Sanders recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Janevia Taylor contributed 11 points, six coming from the free-throw line.

"From about 9 minutes on we really ran a good offensive set and got some easy jumpers and layups. ... Just a good team effort," UH coach Jim Bolla said.

The Wahine also got a boost from the bench in the second half as forward Amber Lee made all three of her attempts from the field after starting center Brittany Grice fouled out with 15:25 left in the game.

Lee broke a 58-58 tie with a short hook shot off a feed from fellow reserve Cassidy Chretien to give UH the lead for good with 4:22 left. She also scored on a layup 2 minutes later to spark a 6-0 run that gave the Wahine control of the game.

"We needed that spark," Tambini said of the contributions of UH's bench. "And when Dalia started hitting, that was huge."

BSU guard Jessica Thompson, the Broncos' leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, was ill and did not make the trip to Honolulu. Junior Nadia Begay started in her place and led the Broncos with a career-high 28 points. She shot 10-for-18 from the field, including 5-for-9 beyond the 3-point line.