Roper and Rainbow RENO, Nev >> Hawaii overcame a sloppy first half with tough defense to ease past Nevada 59-51 to close out its regular season women's basketball road schedule.
Wahine sack Wolf Pack
Hawaii finishes its WAC road
schedule by dominating the
boards in a victory over NevadaFrom staff and wire reports
The Rainbow Wahine disappointed the senior day crowd of 1,431 at Lawlor Events Center with their seventh road win. The Wahine's only road losses have been to Louisiana Tech and Rice.
The victory improves Hawaii to 19-6 overall and 12-4 in the Western Athletic Conference. Nevada drops to 9-16, 6-10.
Christen Roper led Hawaii in scoring with 15 points and was a major reason the Wahine dominated the boards. Roper pulled down 13 as the Wahine outrebounded the Wolf Pack 49-22.
The 6-foot-5 junior kept the Wahine in the game early. She had four of Hawaii's first six points and finished 7-for-11 from the field and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe. Freshman Chelsea Wagner added 12 points and Kim Willoughby came off the bench to score 10. Ashley Bastian led Nevada with 13 points, including three 3-pointers.
Nevada was scoreless the first five minutes of the game and didn't get on the board until Katie Golomb sank two free throws. The Wolf Pack scored on their next three possessions to take a slim 8-6 lead.
From there, the two teams traded baskets until Roper hit a 3-footer for a 21-19 edge. Janka Gabrielova made two free throws and a driving layup with 20 seconds left before intermission to give Hawaii a short-lived four-point lead. Kate Smith hit a 10-foot jumper on the next possession to cut Hawaii's lead to two at 25-23.
The Wahine didn't take care of the ball and coughed it up 12 times in the first half.
"We had a lot of turnovers in the first half because we were in our running game," Hawaii coach Vince Goo said. "We didn't get into a half-court flow for our offense so we turned it over a lot.
"We played defense well in both the first and second halves and then we settled down in the second half. We got the ball into Christen Roper and Kim (Willoughby) and Natasja (Allen). The big difference in the game was rebounding. They had zero offensive boards at the half and only two for the game. We did a good job of (denying Nevada second chances)."
In their den, the Wolf Pack haven't been terribly ferocious, with a 7-6 home record, but Goo was concerned with the altitude of the gym. He used his bench often, with Kim Willoughby, Jade Abele, Christa Brossman and Michelle Gabriel rotating in to give his starters some rest.
"Playing at their place, they're a lot more comfortable," Goo said. "There's quite a bit of altitude here, so we were shuffling people in and out. We saw them struggle, but we told them to play through it. The people off the bench also did a real good job for us.
"(And) we took care of their personnel pretty good. We didn't let them get off as many threes. They were 4-for-12, but they're actually a lot better than that."
Nevada's first trey of the game came in the second half. Bastian hit her first 3-pointer of the game with 10:40 left. Bastian knocked in back-to-back shots from beyond the arc with two minutes left to cut Hawaii's lead to three. But Gabrielova bombed her only 3-pointer of the game and added two more free throws as the clock wound down.
Note: April Atuaia did not play in yesterday's game. Atuaia suffered a pulled left hamstring in practice Saturday. The 5-foot-10 sophomore strained the ligament that supported her left knee. Goo said that the pain was intense for Atuaia, who had a hard time walking. He couldn't confirm whether Atuaia will practice this week.
WAC women's standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. La. Tech 15 1 .938 -- 20 4 .833 Rice 13 4 .765 2 1/2 19 7 .731 Hawaii 12 4 .750 3 19 6 .760 Tulsa 11 6 .647 4 1/2 16 11 .739 San Jose St. 10 6 .625 5 15 10 .593 Nevada 6 10 .375 9 9 16 .360 Boise St. 5 11 .313 10 9 17 .346 Fresno St. 4 12 .250 11 9 17 .346 SMU 4 12 .250 11 9 17 .346 UTEP 1 15 .063 14 3 22 .120 Saturday
San Jose St. 65, Fresno St. 48
Boise State 74, UTEP 53
Louisiana Tech 67, Tulsa 62
Rice 68, SMU 52Yesterday
Hawaii 59, Nevada 51
Hawaii 59, Nevada 51
WAHINE (19-6, 12-4) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Gabrielova 2 7 4 6 35 7 6 9 Roper 7 11 1 2 28 13 1 15 Allen 2 4 2 3 29 2 2 6 Greeny 2 8 0 0 25 10 0 4 Wagner 3 13 5 5 30 1 1 12 Willoughby 4 6 2 2 17 4 0 10 Abele 0 0 0 0 6 1 1 0 Brossman 0 1 0 0 17 4 1 0 Gabriel 1 2 0 0 13 2 2 3 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 21 52 14 18 200 49 14 59 WOLFPACK (9-16, 6-10) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Bastian 5 11 0 0 32 2 3 13 Ingham 5 10 0 1 37 6 3 10 Johnson 1 2 0 0 14 4 0 2 Williams 1 8 0 0 23 1 1 2 Golomb 3 9 4 4 34 5 5 11 Smith 5 15 1 2 37 1 3 11 McGlaston 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 Bankston 1 2 0 0 7 0 0 2 Estrada 0 0 0 0 13 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 21 57 5 7 200 22 15 51 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 25, Nevada 23.
3-point goals-- Hawaii 3-11 (Gabrielova 1-4, Gabriel 1-1, Wagner 1-6), Nevada 4-12(Bastian 3-7, Golomb 1-3, Williams 0-1, Smith 0-1). Personal fouls-- Hawaii 13, Nevada 19. Technical fouls--none. Steals-- Hawaii 2 (Brossman); Nevada 4 (Ignham 3, Bastian). Blocked shots-- Hawaii 0; Nevada 1 ( Golomb); Turnovers-- Hawaii 20 (Willoughby 4, Roper 3, Greeny 3, Gabrielova 2, Brossman 2, Wagner 2, Allen, Gabriel, Greeny, Abele); Nevada 8 (Smith 4, Ingham 2, Golomb, Bankston). Officials--Parrish, Larson, Gulbeyan.
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