Thursday, December 23, 1999
Wahine to get
real test against
Vanderbilt
UH passed its first exam
By Al Chase
with a rout of Princeton
in the Paradise Classic
Star-BulletinA long night of individual soul searching followed by two meetings, one run by Hawaii head coach Vince Goo and the other a players-only affair, paid dividends for the Wahine basketball team.
The meetings were a given after Tuesday's inept performance in a two-point loss.
Princeton provided the first test for UH in yesterday's second game of the Ala Moana Hotel Paradise Classic and, wouldn't you know, the Tigers come out and soot 45 percent from the field to take a 31-29 halftime lead.
However, the Wahine looked much more cohesive and two defensive adjustments, one toward the end of the first half and the other for the entire second half, turned the tide in UH's favor.
The result was a 70-52 Wahine win.
But, the real test happens tonight at 6 at the Stan Sheriff Center against the Vanderbilt Commodores, who have routed their first two tournament opponents by an average of 52.5 points.
The Commodores are tall, talented and very deep off the bench. Head coach Jim Foster has only played his starters an average of 22 minutes in the two wins.
The Tigers, who hit just 1-of-14 attempts from beyond the arc in their opener against Vanderbilt, connected on five to account for almost half their points in the opening period against UH.
"We seem to bring out the best in people. They weren't very good 3 shooters, but then they just lit it up," said Hawaii point guard Kyla Evers.
So Goo had his defenders move out a bit to try and take the good look at the basket away from the Tigers. They made just 3-of-16 treys in the second half.
"I think we took them out their pattern a little bit. It (pressure) gives you an opportunity for violations, deflections, steals and opportunities for fast breaks," Goo said.
It also helped create a definitive scoring spree that determined which team controlled the game.
Jessica Munson hit her third 3-pointer at the 18:17 mark for Princeton's final lead at 34-31. The Tigers did not score again until Lauren Rigney made a free throw with 10:17 remaining.
During that eight-minute span, Hawaii scored 16 consecutive points with Dainora Puida sinking six free throws and Evers and Crystal Lee hitting 3-pointers. Hawaii's lead never dropped below 11 points after that.
Raylene Howard, who led Hawaii with 15 points, had 12 rebounds and Hedy Liu and Puida each had nine.
Puida finished with 14 points, including 10-of-12 from the foul line while Evers and Kylie Galloway each contributed 12 points.
"I think it's understood that the only way we're going to succeed as a team is to play as a team. If we don't play together, we won't get anywhere," Liu said.
"In all of our meetings, everybody has a chance to voice opinions. A lot was said and I think we've ironed out some wrinkles. The meeting ended up positive."
"It's easy when you win to overlook a lot of things and when you lose it's easy to point the finger and place blame on people, but I think we're back where we should be. We'll start all over from here as a team and progress as a team."
Asked how much the Wahine had improved over Tuesday's loss, Goo said "98 percent. We're not back to where we were in the Thanksgiving tournament, but we've played better on the third day in each tournament. We want to come out and give Vanderbilt a game tomorrow."
VANDERBILT 92, FAIRFIELD 42: Center Chantelle Anderson scored 22 points and forward Zuzana Klimesova had 17 to lead the Commodores.
Hawaii 70, Princeton 52
Tigers (2-9 overall, 0-2 tournament)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Moore 0 1 0 0 9 1 0 0 Munson 4 12 0 0 38 2 3 11 Langlas 2 8 2 2 28 6 4 7 Rigney 1 6 2 2 25 8 1 4 Reser 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 Cahill 3 8 0 0 22 1 1 7 Thirolf 4 14 1 1 36 8 3 11 Lane 1 3 0 0 11 0 1 3 Lockwood 4 7 1 2 29 4 0 9 Team 4 Totals 19 60 6 7 200 34 13 52Wahine (8-3, 1-1)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Galloway 3 10 5 5 30 1 2 9 Forsberg 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 McMken-Ruscoe 2 5 0 0 15 1 2 0 Spencer-Vasclls 1 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 Kohler 0 1 1 2 8 0 2 0 Gabriel 0 0 2 2 2 2 1 0 Lee 1 7 0 1 16 1 3 3 Liu 2 4 0 0 23 9 1 9 Evers 5 11 1 3 32 2 2 9 Greeny 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Allen 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 19 Howard 6 13 2 2 38 12 4 0 Puida 2 5 10 12 27 9 1 12 Team 5 Totals 22 58 21 29 200 44 19 70Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.Halftime score-Princeton 31, Hawaii 29.
3-point goals-Princeton 8-31 (Lane 1-3, Munson 3-8, Thirolf 2-8, Cahill 1-4, Langlas 1-6, Rigney 0-1, Reser 0-1), UH 5-18 (Howard 1-2, McMeeken-Ruscoe 1-2, Evers 1-3, Galloway 1-5, Lee 1-5, Puida 0-1). Personal fouls-Princeton 23, UH 7. Fouled out-None. Steals-Princeton 7 (Cahill 4), UH 10 (Evers 4). Blocked shots-Princeton 1 (Langlas), UH 3 (Puida 2). Turnovers-Princeton 18 (Cahill 4), UH 13 (Howard 3). Technicals-none. Officials-Tanibe, Inouye, Kau. A-469.
Vanderbilt 92, Fairfield 42
VANDERBILT: deGroot 4-6 0-0 11, Hammond 6-8 2-3 14, Klimesova 7-10 3-4 17, Palmer 0-0 0-0 0, Anderson 9-13 4-4 22, McElhiney 2-5 2-2 6, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Munch 0-1 0-0 0, Washington 2-4 0-0 5, Holmes 2-4 1-2 5, Danker 3-8 0-0 6, Storey 0-3 5-6. Totals 35-62 17-21 92.FAIRFIELD: Isidora 2-5 0-0 4, Mo. Light 2-6 0-0 4, Thorne 1-5 0-1 2, Friel 0-3 2-2 2, Briscoe 0-1 0-0 0, Me. Light 1-6 0-0 2, Dewalt 1-3 1-4 3, Schiano 0-3 0-0 0, Ranaldo 2-7 1-1 5, Hurford 1-2 0-0 2, Strumpf 3-9, 2-4 8, Tapley 3-9 4-5 10. Totals 16-59 10-17 42.
Halftime-Vanderbilt 51, Fairfield 23.
3-point goals-VU 5-11 (deGroot 3-5, Danker 2-4, McElhiney 0-1, Washington 0-1), Fairfield 0-3. Rebounds-VU 49 (Klimesova 9), Fairfield 27 (Thorne, Me. Light, Strumpf 4). Assists-VU 27 (Smith 12), Fairfield 6 (Tapley, Schiano 2). Turnovers-VU 14 (Danker 3), Fairfield 16 (Me. Light 7). Blocked shots-VU 6 (Hammond 3), Fairfield 4 (Thorne 3). Steals-VU 9 (Danker 3), Fairfield 8 (Tapley 4). Total fouls-VU 18, Fairfield 19 Fouled out-none. Technicals-none.
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