Grice returns to another UH win

After missing a game for the first time in her college career, Hawaii center Brittany Grice made an immediate impact upon her return in leading the Rainbow Wahine to a 71-62 comeback win over Idaho last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Trailing by 11 early in the second half, UH turned to its tallest players to pull off the big comeback.

Grice scored 13 of her 18 points in the second half, while fellow post player Tanya Smith finished with 14 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Hawaii's third straight win was the program's 100th in Western Athletic Conference play. The Wahine (16-8, 7-6 WAC) have won five of their last six to move into a tie for third place in the conference with Nevada.

Grice returned home to California last week to tend to a family issue and missed UH's win at Utah State, breaking a string of 76 straight games played and 55 consecutive starts.

She rejoined the team this week and energized the Wahine in the post as both she and Smith shot 7-for-12 from the field. Grice also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots last night.

"The girls did a great job and came home with a road win but it was agonizing a little bit," Grice said of missing the game. "It just felt so odd to be at home listening to the game.

"It was something I needed to do, but it's great to be back. ... It definitely made me a little hungrier to come out and play again."

"Just being at home with her parents and relatives, being away from school, being away from basketball, kind of refreshed her mentally," UH coach Jim Bolla said. "I got an e-mail from her parents and they thanked us and said they thought it was really good for her to come home."

UH senior guard Amy Sanders began her final homestand by scoring 14 points. Guard Janevia Taylor had seven points, nine rebounds and a career-high eight assists for the Wahine.

Idaho forward Emily Faurholt, the WAC's leading scorer, scored 11 of her 20 points in the first half to lead the Vandals (8-16, 4-9), who lost their third straight.

The Vandals led 39-31 at halftime and stretched the lead to 11 in the opening minute of the second half.

But a switch to their man-to-man defense helped the Wahine fuel a 20-2 run that turned the game in their favor.

UH outrebounded the Vandals 48-29 and limited Idaho's top two scorers, Faurholt and guard Leilani Mitchell (15 points), to 3-for-14 shooting in the second half.

"I told our team at halftime we're going to play straight man and try to take advantage of our mismatches," Bolla said. "Physically we had an advantage on them and this is the first game in five or six that we really took advantage of our physical size over a team."

Idaho took its last lead at 43-32 on Jessica Summer's jumper from the top of the key at the 19:12 mark of the second half.

The Vandals wouldn't make another field goal over the next 9:27 allowing UH to go on their decisive run.

"The man defense was pretty stifling. We rotated well and switched screens and it worked well for us," Grice said.

After back-to-back 3-pointers by Dalia Solia gave UH 52-45 lead, the Wahine went inside to pull away.

With UH leading 56-52, Grice scored eight straight points for UH and her layup off a feed from Smith put UH up 64-53 with 4:26 left.

"They were in foul trouble and we really wanted to pound it inside at the end," Bolla said.

That would be UH's last field goal of the game, but the Wahine made seven of eight free throws down the stretch to hold off the Vandals.

Hawaii closes its home schedule with senior night on Saturday against San Jose State. UH seniors Sanders, Emily Helmly, Callie Spooner and Brittney Aiwohi will be honored after the contest.

WAC standings

	WAC	Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Louisiana Tech	12	1	.923	--	20	4
Fresno State	11	2	.846	1	19	6
Hawaii	7	6	.538	5	16	8
Nevada	7	6	.538	5	11	14
San Jose State	6	7	.462	6	11	13
Boise State	5	8	.385	7	13	12
Idaho	4	9	.308	8	8	16
New Mexico State	4	9	.308	8	7	17
Utah State	2	10	.167	9 1/2	3	19

Yesterday

Fresno State 77, San Jose State 60

Hawaii 71, Idaho 62

Hawaii 71, Idaho 62

VANDALS (8-16, 4-9 WAC)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Mitchell	5	15	3	4	40	8	4	15
Faurholt	6	13	6	8	40	2	3	20
Felton	1	3	0	0	34	1	2	2
Bowen	1	7	0	1	38	5	2	2
Summers	7	16	2	2	30	8	1	16
Flynn	2	6	2	2	18	2	0	7
TEAM						3
Totals	22	60	13	17	200	29	12	62

RAINBOW WAHINE (16-8, 7-6 WAC)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	3	10	1	2	36	9	8	7
Kotani	1	1	0	0	16	5	0	2
Sanders	4	11	7	8	37	6	2	16
Tambini	3	10	0	0	30	8	0	6
Grice	7	12	4	6	29	8	2	18
Solia	3	8	0	0	23	2	3	8
Chretien	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	0
Smith	7	12	0	0	24	6	2	14
TEAM						3
Totals	28	64	12	16	200	48	17	71

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 -- Idaho 39, Hawaii 31

3-point goals -- Idaho 5-24 (Faurholt 2-6, Mitchell 2-8, Flynn 1-4, Bowen 0-6), Hawaii 3-11 (Solia 2-4, Sanders 1-5, Tambini 0-2). Personal fouls -- Idaho 14, Hawaii 13.

Steals -- Idaho 11 (Mitchell 6, Faurholt 3, Felton 2), Hawaii 8 (Taylor 2, Sanders 2, Tambini 2, Smith 2). Blocked shots -- Idaho 1 (Bowen), Hawaii 4 (Grice 3, Sanders). Turnovers -- Idaho 15 (Felton 5, Faurholt 3, Mitchell 2, Summers 2, Bowen, Flynn, TEAM), Hawaii 17 (Smith 4, Taylor 3, Tambini 3, Kotani 2, Solia 2, Sanders, Grice, Chretien). Officials -- Brow, Yamasaki, Williams. A -- 331.