The Rainbow Wahine went after the Southern Methodist Lady Mustangs with a quick-paced game every opportunity possible, producing a 69-60 victory in a Western Athletic Conference game in front of 995 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center last night. Goo lets Wahine
run to WAC winBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.com
"We wanted to get people a little more excited. I think people were getting bored with what we were doing offensively," said Hawaii basketball coach Vince Goo.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Kim Willoughby scored 20 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in a 69-60 win last night against SMU.
"It's something we should have done before. We've always had the green light to push it up the floor. It's just a case of wanting the challenge," said UH's April Atuaia, who scored 19 points.
The Hawaii defense did a wonderful job shutting down SMU's Andrea Cossey, an accomplished scorer who has burned UH from beyond the arc in past games. She did not score until 2:09 was left in the game.
"We played man and matchup zone, so everyone had a part in it. When we were in man Jade (Abele) had the most responsibility, but Amy (Sanders), April and Michelle (Gabriel) also took her at times," said Goo.
Goo also employed three guards at times, with Gabriel, Milia Macfarlane and Trisha Nishimoto in the game. This increased the quickness on the floor for Hawaii (12-8, 6-5).
"With Trisha on the floor we get the ball upcourt quicker and she is able to help Michelle with the deep cover on the perimeter because SMU fires from way out," said Goo.
Willoughby also enjoys the uptempo game as this is what she was used to in high school. As she put it, "We had five track players running up and down the court."
She was 5-for-8 from the field and was successful on all 10 of her free throws to lead UH, which converted 21 of 24 from the charity stripe.
"You get into a rhythm and it makes things easier every time," said Willoughby of her perfection from the free-throw line.
She also had success driving the lane and moving across the lane to make layups as she continues to expand her game on the court.
"Those are moves I have to make because I play against Christen (Roper) in practice. That's the best thing for me, to go against Christen and Natasja Allen, who is a physical player, in practice," said Willoughby.
The victory puts a stop to UH's three-game losing streak. The Wahine open a three-game road trip at San Jose next Sunday.
The opening six minutes were evenly played, with UH holding a 10-8 lead. It was obvious the Wahine wanted to play a more uptempo game, pushing the ball upcourt quickly after every SMU missed shot, and there were 13 of those in the early going.
UH's only points in the next five minutes came on Roper's 10-foot, straight-on jumper. SMU managed six points to take a 14-12 lead with 7:51 to go before the half, but shooting percentages were low for both teams. Hawaii was .278 (5-for-18) from the floor and SMU was .250 (6-for-24) at this point.
"I think both teams were playing good defense early. Neither team was able to make a run," said Goo.
Suddenly the field-goal attempts started to fall, and the Wahine took a 22-21 lead on Atuaia's 3-pointer with 5:01 left. She followed with a jumper from the right side. Willoughby returned to the court and scored UH's final six points, hitting two free throws, a layup and two more free throws with five seconds on the clock to give Hawaii a 30-24 halftime advantage.
Willoughby then rejected a last-second running jumper by SMU's Vanita Krouch as the half ended. Atuaia led all scorers in the opening half with 12 points.
The shooting percentages improved somewhat early in the second half, in part because the defensive effort at both ends was lacking.
SMU scored several transition baskets quickly as the UH defense was caught napping. However, Atuaia continued to have a hot shooting hand, scoring five more points, and Willoughby aided the cause with six points and five rebounds to run her totals in both categories into double figures for the second consecutive game. UH led 53-46 with 7:59 to play.
The Wahine took their first 10-point lead with 4:05 left on Willoughby's layup seconds after Gabriel had canned a 3-pointer from the left side off an inside-out pass from Abele, whose attempted drive down the lane was stopped.
Shonte Roberts answered for SMU with a short jumper, but Willoughby made two free throws to reach 20 points, the first Wahine to hit that mark this season.
Roberts, leading the Lady Mustangs with 16 points, fouled out at the 2:37 mark, but Cossey scored her first basket of the game, a 3-pointer, at 2:09 and Shanta Ramdhanny followed with a pull-up jumper to cut the UH lead to 62-57 with 1:42 on the clock. As she scored, Atuaia lay at the other end of the floor holding her right ankle. She returned with 36 seconds remaining and sank two free throws after being fouled going after the rebound of an SMU miss.
WAC standings
WAC
gamesOverall W L Pct. W L Louisiana Tech 11 0 1.000 19 2 Tulsa 7 3 .700 12 9 Rice 6 4 .600 9 10 SMU 6 5 .645 12 9 Hawaii 6 5 .545 12 8 Fresno St. 6 5 .545 12 9 UTEP 4 7 .364 9 12 San Jose St. 4 7 .364 8 12 Boise St. 3 8 .273 6 15 Nevada 1 10 .091 8 13 Yesterday
Fresno st. 67, Boise St. 51
Rice 76, Tulsa 73
Nevada 75, UTEP 58
Louisiana Tech 66, San Jose St. 59
Hawaii 69, SMU 60
Hawaii 69, SMU 60MUSTANGS (12-9, 6-5 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Shead 1 3 0 0 16 1 3 2 Krouch 0 4 0 0 19 2 0 0 Cruse 0 2 0 0 10 1 3 0 Roberts 7 10 2 3 17 3 0 16 Davis 5 10 0 0 24 9 1 11 Wright 0 2 0 0 6 1 0 0 Ramdhanny 7 18 1 2 29 3 1 17 Alexander 2 10 1 2 33 8 1 5 Cossey 2 15 0 0 27 3 5 6 Patton 1 6 0 0 19 6 0 3 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 25 80 4 7 200 41 14 60 RAINBOW WAHINE (12-8, 6-5 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Willoughby 5 8 10 10 32 15 1 20 Abele 3 5 2 2 30 3 1 3 Nishimoto 1 2 1 2 10 3 1 3 Macfarlane 0 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 Roper 2 6 2 3 30 7 1 6 Gabriel 2 3 0 0 36 1 7 5 Sanders 0 2 0 0 5 0 0 0 Atuaia 7 13 3 3 34 2 0 19 Allen 2 9 3 4 19 8 1 7 Team 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 22 50 21 24 200 47 13 69 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 30, SMU 24.
3-point goals -- SMU 6-26 (Ramdhanny 2-5, Cossey 2-11, Patton 1-4, Davis 1-5, Shead 0-1), Hawaii 4-12 (Atuaia 2-5, Gabriel 1-2, Abele 1-2, Nishimoto 0-1, Macfarlane 0-2). Personal fouls -- SMU 20, Hawaii 8. Technical fouls -- none. Steals -- SMU 7 (Shead 2, Ramdhanny 2, Roberts, Alexander, Cossey), Hawaii 3 (Gabriel 2, Nishimoto). Blocked shots -- SMU 5 (Davis 3, Alexander, Cossey), Hawaii 5 (Roper 4, Willoughby). Turnovers -- SMU 5, Hawaii 14. Officials -- Melissa Barlow, Scotty Hermann, Brian Yamasaki. A -- 995.
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