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Monday, February 7, 2000
Wahine within reach
By Al Chase
of WAC top spot
Star-BulletinThe conference title and postseason momentum are on the line the next two weeks for the Hawaii Wahine basketball team.
"It's a big two weeks coming up for us with TCU and SMU coming here this week and the two games on the road next week," Wahine head coach Vince Goo said.
The Wahine play Texas Christian Thursday night and host Western Athletic Conference leader Southern Methodist Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii went cold from the field the last five minutes of its game at SMU Jan. 13 and lost, 68-51, the only WAC defeat for the Wahine.
Two nights later they held off TCU in the final minutes for a 71-66 win.
The first priority is taking care of business against TCU, a team that loves to fire away from 3-point range.
If the Wahine win Thursday, then Saturday's game with SMU will be a showdown for a share of first place. The Mustangs (14-5, 7-0 WAC) play San Jose State, winless in the WAC, Thursday on their way to Hawaii.
The Wahine have been on road trips the past two weeks that featured "red eye" flights to the mainland and very early departures back to Hawaii.
Goo felt it was a combination of the two trips that left the Wahine with 'dead' legs against Fresno State Saturday night.
"We did not shoot well from the perimeter all night. All our shots were on line, but short," Goo said.
UH (15-5, 7-1) rallied in the final three minutes to defeat the Bulldogs, 48-44.
"We can laugh about it now because we won, but apart from Dainora (Puida), no one played that well," co-captain Raylene Howard said. "We don't want to make excuses, but maybe the travel had something to do with it."
Puida scored eight of her 10 points in the last seven minutes to lead the Hawaii rally.
UH plays at Tulsa and Rice next week on its final road trip of the regular season.
WAC women
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. So. Methodist 7 0 1.000 14 5 .737 Hawaii 7 1 .875 15 5 .750 Tulsa 5 3 .625 9 11 .450 Rice 4 3 .571 12 7 .632 Texas Christian 3 5 .375 12 11 .522 Fresno St. 2 5 .286 9 12 .429 Texas-El Paso 2 6 .250 5 15 .250 San Jose St. 0 7 .000 2 17 .105 Saturday's results
Hawaii 48, Fresno State 44
Texas-El Paso 76, San Jose State 53
Southern Methodist 75, Rice 66
Texas Christian 80, Tulsa 58
Tomorrow's games
Rice at Wisconsin
Tulsa at Duquesne
Thursday's games
Texas Christian at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Southern Methodist at San Jose State
Saturday's games
Southern Methodist at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Texas Christian at San Jose State
Texas-El Paso at fresno State
Tulsa at Rice
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
