Saturday, March 17, 2001
Wahine to IT'S DOUBTFUL coaches or players at the University of Hawaii would ever root for Brigham Young to win a game.
host Cougars
Brigham Young beats Oregon
By Al Chase
State and will play Hawaii in the
second round of the
WNIT on Monday
Star-BulletinBut that was the case yesterday.
The Wahine (24-7) went through a light, one-hour practice, then waited for the outcome of last night's Oregon State-Brigham Young first-round game in Corvallis, Ore.
Earlier yesterday, Women's National Invitation Tournament officials discovered it would cost $254 more per player, coach and trainer to send the Wahine basketball team to Provo, Utah, than it would to bring the Cougars here if they had beaten OSU last night.
WNIT officials were to award Monday's second-round game to Hawaii -- if BYU won.
The Cougars did just that, dominating the Beavers, 78-63.
"We're just glad to be at home for our fans, that's No. 1," said Wahine head coach Vince Goo. "We're thankful to the administration for putting in a bid that will keep us at home.
"We watched tapes of Oregon State today. We have another day to get ready for BYU," Goo continued. "We have some game tapes on them and we'll crank it up tomorrow."
UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida was pleased with the fan turnout, their enthusiasm and the electricity they provided for the Wahine in Hawaii's first-round victory over Santa Clara Thursday night.
After several telephone calls between WNIT and UH officials yesterday, Yoshida raised the guarantee for Monday's game from $6,000 to $14,000.
The winner of the Hawaii-BYU game will play either UNLV or Oklahoma State between March 20 and 22, at a site to be determined.
The Cougars (19-12) are playing in their third consecutive postseason tournament under head coach Trent Shippen.
They have won four of their last five games, including an upset of then No. 14 Utah in the semifinal round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. In that game, the Utes led 40-20 at halftime, but the Cougars came back to win, 57-50.
BYU then lost the conference title game to Colorado State in the final seconds, 59-56.
Erin Thorn, a 5-foot-10 off-guard, leads the Cougars in scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game. She's the only player on the team averaging double figures.
Point guard Stacy Jensen averaged 9.6 points per game and 6-1 senior center/forward Caroline Beus averages 9 points and 5.9 rebounds. Beus makes 53 percent of her field goal attempts (113-of-213 prior to last night's game).
Tickets for Monday's 7 p.m. game at the Stan Sheriff Center will go on sale at the box office starting at 8 a.m. Monday.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
