Star-Bulletin Sports


Monday, February 8, 1999


W A H I N E _ B A S K E T B A L L




Bad start against
Lobos dooms UH

The Wahine basketball team
can't overcome an early deficit
at New Mexico

Star-Bulletin staff

Tapa

ALBUQUERQUE, 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.

Tapa

Box Score

New Mexico 69, Hawaii 55

At Albuquerque, N.M.

Bullet 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
Bullet Lobos (16-5 overall; 7-2 WAC)

		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	69
Key: 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.



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