Saturday, January 12, 2002
[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Jade Abele had a rebound stolen away by SMU's Kaci Alexander last night.
Wahine hold off The Hawaii Wahine needed a smothering defense for the final 28 seconds and they accomplished that to preserve a 52-51 Western Athletic Conference victory over Southern Methodist last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
SMU, now 3-0
in conference
The Mustangs surged back and
had a shot to win, but
Hawaii made a big stopBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.com
The Wahine certainly did not want SMU's Andrea Cossey, who led the Mustangs with 21 points, to take the last shot. April Atuaia made sure Cossey was denied the ball.
With the shot clock showing five seconds to play, Kenni Patton drove the lane from left to right and shoveled a shot up that rolled off the rim and into Janka Gabrielova's waiting hands. The UH senior point guard ran out the final seconds.
"We figured they were going for two-pointer and their sideline inbounds play could have gone to Patton as well. We were straight man-to-man at that point," said UH coach Vince Goo.
Hawaii played without forward Kim Willoughby, lost forward Natasja Allen for the last 18 minutes of the first half with a sprained left ankle and had to use forward Jade Abele for the first time in five weeks.
Freshman wing Chelsea Wagner came off the bench to lead Hawaii (10-2 overall, 3-0 WAC) with 13 points. She had three rebounds, one steal and did not commit a turnover.
"I felt comfortable. I know the system, although I think I forced a couple of shots when I got too excited," said Wagner. "They were definitely forcing us to shoot from outside. They didn't want us to pass into the post at all."
Goo credited Wagner with doing a good job.
"It was one of the better performances from our wing people." Goo said.
"Both teams played good defense and both teams played sloppy offense. We dribbled too much and didn't run our offense that way we should."
The first half was ragged throughout as neither team shot well from the floor. Hawaii was 10-for-29 (.345) but was under 30 percent for the first 13 minutes. SMU made just 9 of 35 shots from the field for a .257 percentage.
The Mustangs took an 8-3 lead in the first four minutes on four relatively easy baskets from close range. The Wahine did not take their first lead, 12-11, until the 12:48 mark when Abele, back in action after missing five weeks with a stress fracture in her right foot, hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
The next six minutes found both teams missing shots, turning the ball over, getting called for three seconds in the lane and struggling to run an offense. Tyesha Glover's three-point play pulled the Mustangs into a 16-all tie with 7:33 left.
Following a time out, Wagner scored seven consecutive points. She rebounded her own miss and scored with 7:09 left, hit both ends of a 1-and-1 at 7:01 and canned a 3-pointer at 6:40 for a 22-16 lead. Gabrielova followed with another 3-pointer at 5:54 to open up a nine-point lead the Wahine maintained until the half.
The Wahine started the second half fast as Christen Roper hit three consecutive shots in the first two minutes to give UH a 35-22 lead. Roper led all rebounders with 12 and blocked three shots.
Then, with the score 37-24, the Mustangs went on a 10-0 run with Kaci Alexander accounting for five of those points. Hawaii turned the ball over five times during the run and went nearly six minutes without scoring. Wagner broke the spell by hitting a 3-pointer with 12:12 to go in the game. Gabrielova's trey boosted Hawaii's lead to eight points, 47-39 with 7:33 to play, but the Mustangs came back on Jackee' Brown's 3-pointer and Tyesha Glover's short jumper in the lane to cut Hawaii's lead to 47-44.
Karena Greeny hit one free throw to make the score 48-44 with 6:47 left. Neither team scored again until Wagner sank two free throws at the 3:39 mark.
Cossey's jumper made it 50-46 at 3:18, but Gabrielova hit a driving layup at 2:16 to keep UH ahead by six points, 52-26. That would be the final Wahine scoring.
Brown's second 3-pointer and Patton's baseline jumper pulled SMU (6-9, 1-4) to within one point, 52-51, with 1:01 remaining.
Notes: UH freshman forward Kim Willoughby was discharged from the hospital yesterday. She was in uniform but did not play last night. Attendance last night was 1,006.
Hawaii 52, SMU 51
MUSTANGS (6-9, 1-4)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Krouch 0 2 0 0 20 3 2 0 Cruse 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 Roberts 0 6 0 2 13 4 1 0 Glover 4 15 1 1 32 7 1 9 Brown 2 5 0 0 24 5 1 6 Alexander 4 12 1 2 34 5 1 9 Cossey 9 18 0 0 37 4 3 21 Patton 3 12 0 0 37 9 3 6 Team 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 Totals 22 70 2 5 200 43 12 51 RAINBOWS (10-2, 3-0)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Abele 3 8 1 2 14 7 1 8 Gabrielova 4 8 0 0 39 4 6 10 Roper 3 7 2 2 24 12 0 8 Brossman 0 3 0 0 11 2 0 0 Gabriel 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Sijercic 1 2 0 0 3 0 0 3 Atuaia 0 7 2 2 33 6 3 2 Allen 0 6 0 0 19 2 0 0 Greeny 3 8 1 2 37 3 1 8 Wagner 4 9 3 4 19 3 0 13 Team 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 Totals 18 58 9 12 200 46 11 52 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-SMU 20, Hawaii 29.
3-point goals--SMU 5-10 (Cossey 3-4, Brown 2-4, Patton 0-2); Hawaii 7-21 (Gabrielova 2-4, Wagner 2-5, Greeny 1-2, Sijercic 1-2, Abele 1-3, Brossman 0-2, Atuaia 0-2). Personal fouls--SMU 14, Hawaii 10. Technical fouls--none. Steals--SMU 3 (Brown, Alexander, Patton); Hawaii 3 (Gabriel, Wagner, Sijercic). Blocked shots--SMU 5 (Cossey 4, Patton); Hawaii 6 (Roper 3, Abele 2, Greeny). Turnovers--SMU 14 (Brown 4, Krouch 2, Cossey 2, Patton 2, Roberts, Glover, Alexander, TEAM); Hawaii 19 (Gabrielova 10, Abele 4, Roper 3, Brossman, Sijercic). Officials--Stevens, Fujimoto, Ortega. A--1,006.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
