San Jose ends SAN JOSE, Calif. >> For the first time since 1995, the Hawaii women's basketball team did not come away with a victory at the Event Center.
UH’s dominance
at Event Center
From staff and wire reports
The Rainbow Wahine had won six consecutive games here, but were unable to keep the Spartans' scoring machine, guard Cricket Williams, from putting the ball in the basket down the stretch after Jade Abele had pulled UH even at 59 with 3:43 left to play.
San Jose State's 71-67 Western Athletic Conference victory hurt the Wahine, as the two teams ahead of them in the standings, Tulsa and Rice, also lost this weekend.
Williams scored eight of her game-high 24 points in the final minutes as the Spartans (8-12, 4-7) kept their hopes alive of getting a first-round bye in next month's WAC tournament.
"We held her to 1-for-7 shooting in the first half. She scores 19 points but took 21 shots to do it," said UH coach Vince Goo. "I look at the stats and if I hadn't seen the game I would wonder how we did not win. We played well enough to win, but they stepped it up and did what they had to."
Hawaii and San Jose State each scored 28 points in the paint. However, the Wahine had a 13-8 edge in points off turnovers, a 5-4 edge in second-chance points, a 4-0 advantage in fast-break points and more points from their bench, 15-11, and still lost.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Michelle Gabriel and Jade Abele put UH (12-9, 6-6) up by five points, 14-9, 5:50 into the game, but the Wahine missed their next four shots as San Jose State regained the lead. Gabriel's jumper 2:37 before intermission pulled UH within one, 31-30, but the Spartans closed the half with a 7-2 spurt, including Jessica Kellogg's trey with seven ticks on the clock, to take a 38-32 lead.
San Jose State went up by as many as 13 points early in the second half, before the Wahine started to chip away. UH gained a tie, but was not able to take a lead.
Both teams shot 50 percent from the field in the first half. UH shot 47 percent in the second half and the defense cut the Spartans down to 33 percent, but the difference came at the free-throw line. San Jose State was 9-for-11 after the break from the charity stripe while Hawaii was 4-for-7.
"Our offense was good, we only had three turnovers in the second half and it was an extremely well-officiated game," said Goo. "I thought our defense was good, but we had a problem at the end."
Christen Roper led UH with 16 points and Abele added 13.
The Wahine traveled to Reno last night to play Nevada on Thursday. They return to California and play Fresno State on Saturday.
WAC standings
WAC GAMES OVERALL W L Pct. W L Louisiana Tech 13 0 1.000 21 2 Tulsa 7 5 .583 12 11 Rice 7 5 .583 10 11 Fresno St. 7 6 .538 13 10 Hawaii 6 6 .500 12 9 SMU 6 7 .462 12 11 San Jose St. 5 7 .417 9 12 UTEP 5 8 .385 10 13 Boise St. 5 8 .385 8 15 Nevada 2 11 .154 9 14 Yesterday
San Jose St. 71, Hawaii 69
San Jose St. 71, Hawaii 67
RAINBOW WAHINE (12-9, 6-6 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Abele 5 9 0 0 28 5 6 13 Allen 3 7 2 4 25 5 1 8 Roper 7 12 2 2 32 7 1 16 Gabriel 3 6 0 0 37 3 6 7 Atuaia 3 9 1 2 25 2 0 8 Willoughby 3 7 2 3 23 7 0 8 Nishimoto 3 3 0 1 10 0 0 7 Macfarlane 0 1 0 0 12 0 2 0 Sanders 0 2 0 0 8 0 0 0 Totals 27 56 7 12 200 31 16 67 SPARTANS (9-12, 5-7 wac)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Taylor, Tatiana 5 11 1 2 28 8 1 11 Augustine 1 5 0 0 22 4 3 2 Taylor, Taoma 5 8 0 0 26 5 0 10 Williams 7 21 10 13 38 5 10 24 Kellogg 4 11 2 2 33 3 2 13 Prescott 0 0 0 0 7 3 0 0 Wells 1 4 0 0 9 1 1 2 Sheehy 3 3 0 0 18 4 0 9 Smith 0 0 0 0 17 3 0 0 Forster 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Totals 26 65 13 17 200 37 17 71 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 -- SJSU 38, Hawaii 32.
3-point goals -- Hawaii 6-13 (Abele 3-4, Gabriel 1-4, Atuaia 1-4, Nishimoto 1-1); SJSU 6-14 (Kellogg 3-8, Sheehy 3-3, Williams 0-2).
Personal fouls -- Hawaii 15; SJSU 15.
Technical fouls -- none.
Steals -- Hawaii 1 (Roper); SJSU 5 (Taoma Taylor 2, Williams 2, Taylor).
Blocked shots -- Hawaii 4 (Roper 2, Gabriel, Willoughby); SJSU 3 (Augustine 2, Taylor).
Turnovers -- Hawaii 11; SJSU 8.
Officials -- John Wells, Kent Johnson, Darren Krzesnik. A -- 584.
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