The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine begin the second half of the Western Athletic Conference basketball season with two very important games at the Stan Sheriff Center this week. Wahine want
reversal of fortuneBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comHawaii is undefeated at home and winless on the road in conference games in 2003. Two of those road losses were to this week's opponents, No. 9 Louisiana Tech tomorrow night and Southern Methodist on Saturday.
Whether the Wahine learned enough and can use that knowledge to reverse the results in their own house will be known late Saturday evening.
"I think it is a benefit when you don't win the first-round game. You've gotta try harder and make some adjustments," UH coach Vince Goo said. "When you win the first round, you come into the second round with confidence and that is a plus in your favor."
UH's biggest hurdle to keeping its home record clean is the matchup with the Lady Techsters (17-2, 9-0 WAC), who shot 71 percent from the field and had five players in double figures in crushing Boise State 102-66 at Boise last Thursday. Two nights later, Louisiana Tech dropped to 34 percent from the field in knocking off Texas-El Paso 68-53 after leading by two points at the half.
The Lady Techsters have won 15 consecutive games with an average margin of victory of 25 points. The closest they came to losing was the eight-point win over the visiting Wahine on Jan. 11.
Both teams rely heavily on defense and are tied atop the WAC statistics allowing 56.1 points per game. The challenge for UH is keeping the Lady Techsters, who score an average of 74.8 points an outing, well below their season output.
It is no secret both coaches like to score from inside and, at the same time, try to get the centers, Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford and Hawaii's Christen Roper, in foul trouble. That strategy worked for LaTech coach Kurt Budke's team in the first meeting as Roper was on the bench much of the first half. In fact, Budke commented on television at halftime that the Lady Techsters would continue to power the ball inside in the second half even with Roper back in the game.
"We'll go inside if it is available," Goo said. "Against Tulsa, the perimeter was available. We run our offense, execute and we take the first thing the defense gives us.
"We average 14 turnovers a game and only had seven against Tulsa. That means we had good recognition on the part of our offense. When you execute on offense that gives you an opportunity to score baskets, but you need to finish the execution by scoring points."
Another key will be rebounding. Louisiana Tech leads the conference in that category, pulling down eight more a game than the Wahine, although the teams are even in rebounding defense.
"The same is true on defense," Goo said. "If you don't box out and you let them get second shots, then you haven't finished that execution either.
"We have to play a solid 40 minutes. They are potent enough offensively that they can get a quick, huge lead on you."
The Lady Techsters also are adept at swiping the ball, doubling UH's average of 5.2 steals a game. The Wahine will have to take care of the ball and make good passing decisions, something that has been troublesome lately.
Note: Tomorrow night is "White-Out Night," with all fans encouraged to wear white in support of the Wahine.
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