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Monday, January 22, 2001
Spartans surprise To exhibit composure or not -- that was the crucial question for the Hawaii women's basketball team last night.
unsuspecting Wahine
Hawaii loses composure
in last-minute WAC lossBy Al Chase
Star-BulletinThe Wahine missed this important part of their game at critical times against San Jose State.
The Spartans ended five seasons and 11 games of frustration by beating Hawaii, 74-72, before the largest crowd of the season, 982, at the Stan Sheriff Center.
What's more relevant is none of the San Jose State players on the court last night were involved in the 11 consecutive losses to UH.
SJSU second-year head coach Janice Richard has molded a team that depends heavily on junior college transfers into a very competitive unit.
"They come from successful junior college programs and they are going to battle you all the way," Wahine head coach Vince Goo said.
"All the way" included the final 32.3 seconds.
That's when Hawaii, holding a 72-71 lead, retained possession as April Atuaia forced a held ball after a missed Wahine shot.
What happened between then and the end of the game is best described by UH assistant coach JonNewlee: "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."
During a time out, Goo told his players to take no shots, let the Spartans foul.
"We were supposed to back it out, leave it at half court and run our run-down offense," Goo said.
Although the Spartans had not tried to foul, Atuaia ventured too far up court.Surrounded by two Spartans, she tried to pass toward the middle to Jana Gabrielova. But Danada Smith intercepted the ball and streaked in for a layup.
That was turnover No. 20 for the Wahine.
That left Hawaii with 15.9 seconds to come back -- only to have Kylie Galloway get called for traveling as she drove down the left side of the lane.
Turnover No. 21.
Even after Atari Parker made one of two free throws with 2.3 seconds on the clock, the Wahine committed turnover No. 22 on the inbounds pass.
For the game, San Jose State scored 27 points off UH turnovers.
However, the game wasn't lost in the last 30 seconds, it was won by the Spartans' second half domination of the boards, especially in their offensive end, and their no-quit attitude.
"They put up some shots that we contested real well, but they ran and chased down the offensive rebounds. They played real hard. It was a massacre on the boards at their end of the floor," said Goo.
SJSU was credited with just four assists in the game preferring to rely on the one-on-one abilities of Parker and Smith. They combined for 54 points and repeatedly hit pull-up jumpers.
"It shouldn't have come down to a possession game. The pressure wasn't any different throughout the whole game. I think we got a little rattled and instead of playing to win we played to keep the lead," said Galloway, who led UH with 23 points.
"We were outhustled, didn't box out and were concerned about helping against their guards. In doing so, sometimes we weren't in box-out position."
The Wahine shot 51 percent from the field, but took 24 less shots than the Spartans.
Christen Roper scored a career-high 16 points, but all too often the guards weren't looking for the option inside, according to Goo.
"Almost everybody who handled the ball lost their composure at one time or another,"Goo said.
"We've got a lot of things to work on in practice this week."
Goo challenged his players after the game to find it within themselves to be composed.
WAHINENOTES: Hawaii hosts Tulsa Friday and Rice Sunday. ... The win was the Spartans' first in 15 games here. ... Sue Erickson's 3-pointer as time ran out lifted the White team to a 76-73 victory over the Green team in yesterday's alumnae game.
San Jose State 74, Hawaii 72
Spartans (2-4 WAC, 10-7 overall)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Te. Taylor 2 5 0 0 15 5 1 4 Parker 11 28 6 8 39 2 1 30 D. Smith 9 20 5 5 33 5 0 24 Ta. Taylor 0 4 1 2 22 2 0 1 Kellogg 3 5 0 0 15 2 0 6 A’Giza 1 2 0 0 17 3 0 2 M. Smith 3 3 1 2 29 10 2 7 Igoni 0 2 0 0 23 5 0 0 Jones 0 2 0 0 8 2 0 0 Team 4 Totals 29 71 13 17 200 40 4 74 Wahine (3-2 WAC, 12-4 overall)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Galloway 8 15 5 5 37 4 4 23 Gabrielova 0 4 2 2 34 0 4 2 Roper 6 8 4 5 28 9 1 16 Brossman 0 0 0 0 11 2 3 0 Lee 4 8 2 4 38 5 4 10 Puida 2 3 4 7 14 2 1 9 Atuaia 4 9 4 7 33 8 2 12 Greeny 0 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 Team 1 Totals 24 47 21 30 200 32 19 72 Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime--Hawaii 37, San Jose State 29.
3-point goals--SJS 3-11 (Parker 2-4, D. Smith 1-3, Kellogg 0-1), UH 3-13 (Puida 1-1, Galloway 2-6, Lee 0-2, Gabrielova 0-2, Atuaia 0-2),. Personal fouls--SJS 22, UH 17. Fouled out--none. Steals--SJS 13 (D. Smith 5), UH 8 (Atuaia 3). Blocked shots--SJS 2 (Parker, Ta, Taylor), UH 4 (Roper 3). Turnovers--SJS 18 (D. Smith 5), UH 22 (Galloway 6). Technicals--none. Officials--Barlow, Price, Lewis. A--982.
WAC standings
Conference All Games W L Pct. W L Pct. TCU 5 0 1.000 13 4 .765 SMU 5 1 .833 10 7 .588 Hawaii 3 2 .600 12 4 .750 Rice 2 3 .400 10 7 .588 Nevada 2 3 .400 9 8 .529 Fresno St. 2 3 .400 6 11 .353 San Jose St. 2 4 .333 10 7 .588 UTEP 2 5 .286 6 12 .333 Tulsa 0 4 .000 3 12 .200
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
