Sports Notebook
Star-Bulletin staff
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dalia Solia of Hawaii saw some success against Boise State this season, making nine 3-pointers in three games. She made three in a row during the first half yesterday, but the Rainbow Wahine lost to the Broncos.
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Broncos go inside to beat UH
RENO, Nev. » A play appropriately named "turnout," helped turn out the lights on the Hawaii women's basketball team's stay in the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
The play is designed for the Boise State to spread the floor and isolate forward Michelle Hessing on the block. It proved to be close to unstoppable in the second half as the Broncos upset the Rainbow Wahine 72-63 in the tournament quarterfinals.
Hessing, a 6-foot-2 junior, scored just two points in the first half, but went 5-for-8 in the second on her way to a game-high 17 points.
"The first half I went out there and nothing was falling but I still got them up," Hessing said. "The second half I told myself that 'they can't stop me, just go strong and it's my game.' "
She certainly became the central figure of the game during a 6-minute span in the second half during which she scored 13 of Boise State's 15 points to snuff UH's hopes of a comeback.
She began the run with a short hook in the post to give Boise State a 55-46 lead with 9 minutes left, and ended it with a layup to extend the lead to 12 just under the 3-minute mark.
"We knew going in that we had to establish a post presence and we tried to get Hess isolated," BSU coach Gordy Presnell said. "We have a play called 'turnout' and we went down low to her quite a bit."
Boise State was the WAC's top 3-point shooting team, hitting 165 shots from beyond the arc during the regular season. But yesterday, the Broncos' inside game proved to be too much for the Wahine.
With the Broncos shooters commanding the attention of UH defenders, BSU's guards were able to find Hessing in one-on-one situations in the post.
"What Boise did was they spread us out so we couldn't get any help in on her and our players couldn't get in front of her," UH coach Jim Bolla said. "She did a real good job of pinning. You have to give her a lot of credit. ... She really knows how to use what she has to her advantage."
Hessing also grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds and swiped four steals on the defensive end of the court.
Back in action:
Hawaii center
Brittany Grice returned to the court after serving a one-game suspension in Saturday's loss at Louisiana Tech. The junior had six points in 14 minutes off the bench before fouling out with 10:48 left in the game.
Raining 3s:
UH made eight 3-pointers to fall one short of its season high of nine set against Boise State on Jan. 23.
UH junior Dalia Solia enjoyed shooting against the Broncos this season, making nine of 18 3-pointers in three matchups with BSU.
Junior guard Janevia Taylor made three treys yesterday to raise her career total to 86 and pass B.J. Itoman on UH's career list.
Coming home:
UH's lengthy road trip will end today, as the Wahine are scheduled to leave Reno this afternoon and return to Honolulu around midnight.
The team left for the mainland on Feb. 27 for their road trip to New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech and traveled directly to Reno over the weekend.