Monday, February 8, 1999
Bad start against
Lobos dooms UH
The Wahine basketball team
Star-Bulletin staff
can't overcome an early deficit
at New MexicoALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Hawaii Wahine know from past experience what happens when they fall behind early in a basketball game on the road. They lose.
Yesterday, the New Mexico Lobos reinforced that familiar scenario at the start of both halves to defeat Hawaii, 69-55, in a Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division game before 11,677 fans at The Pit.
The loss kept the Wahine (13-8 overall, 5-4 conference) from moving into a third-place tie with UNM. The win vaulted the Lobos (16-5, 7-2) into second place ahead of Brigham Young, which lost to Utah Saturday.
Hawaii hosts the Cougars (12-8, 6-2) Thursday and Utah (16-4, 7-1) Saturday in 7 p.m. games at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Lobos took a 16-7 lead in the first nine minutes and increased the margin to 14 (28-14) with 3:42 to go in the half. Only a 6-0 UH run on two baskets by Raylene Howard and a pair of free throws by BJ Itoman leading up to intermission kept the deficit under 10 (28-20).
That brief momentum did not carry over to the second half. The Lobos scored the first 12 points to take solid control of the game. The closest the Wahine came was 12 points down late in the game.
The early hole Hawaii dug for itself was the result of poor shooting. The Wahine made just 6 of 25 field-goal attempts (24 percent) and only 1 of 8 3-pointers (13 percent) in the first half.
"We had good shots, but only shot 24 percent in the first half and that's not good enough. We did not have perimeter shooting at all," UH head coach Vince Goo said. "They came out on fire at the beginning of the second half. That was it, right there."
Howard scored 19 points to lead Hawaii. Crystal Lee was the only other Wahine in double figures with 15. Aina Kohler pulled down seven rebounds for Hawaii.
Niiki Heckroth topped four Lobos in double figures with 15 points. Miranda Sanchez and Katie Kern added 14 each and Kern had a game-high nine rebounds.
UH's next three games are here with the San Diego State contest Feb. 20 ending the home season. Attach the critical label to all three. Right now, BYU is probably the only team the Wahine can pass in the standings to improve their seeding in next month's WAC tournament.
Box Score
New Mexico 69, Hawaii 55
At Albuquerque, N.M.
Wahine (13-8 overall; 5-4 WAC)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Forsberg 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Ruscoe 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 Vasconcellos 13 2 3 1 2 2 2 7 Kohler 23 2 6 3 4 7 4 7 Itoman 36 1 8 5 6 6 4 7 Lee 31 6 12 0 0 4 4 15 Liu 21 0 5 0 0 4 4 0 Evers 23 0 5 0 0 1 2 0 Greeny 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Howard 40 6 10 6 6 5 3 19 Team 4 Totals 200 17 52 15 18 34 23 55
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Loiselle 37 4 8 0 0 3 0 10 McKinnon 15 2 5 0 0 1 3 4 Vaske 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sanchez 38 6 16 2 3 8 3 14 Bryant 16 1 7 4 6 1 3 7 Kern 30 3 8 8 9 9 2 14 Williams 14 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 Bocock 11 2 6 1 2 5 2 5 Heckroth 37 4 10 5 5 8 3 15 Team 5 Totals 200 22 60 20 25 42 19 69Key: mp-minutes played. fgm-field goals made. fga-field goals attempted. ftm-free throws made. fta-free throws attempted. reb-rebounds. pf-personal fouls. pts-points scored.Halftime score-New Mexico 28, Hawaii 20.
3-point goals-UH 6-20 (Spencer-Vasconcellos 2-3, Lee 3-6, Howard 1-2, McMeeken-Ruscoe 0-1, Itoman 0-5), NM 5-14 (Bryant 1-1, Heckroth 2-4, Loiselle 2-5, Sanchez 0-4).
Assists-UH 90 (Itoman 3), NM 15 (Loiselle, McKinnon, Heckroth 3). Turnovers-UH 16 (Howard 8), NM 14 (Kern 5). Steals-UH 4 (Itoman 3), NM 7 (Bryant, Heckroth 2). Blocked shots-UH 0, NM 5 (Kern 4). Technicals-None.
A-11,677. Officials: Yarbrough, Barlow, Jump.
