Rainbow Wahine The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball team turned in a remarkable second half sparked by a tenacious defense and a renewed offense to edge Tulsa 66-64 last night in a Western Athletic Conference game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
end skid
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comSenior point guard Michelle Gabriel scored a career-high 18 points for Hawaii, which ended a three-game losing streak and handed the Golden Hurricane (13-13, 8-7 WAC) their fifth loss in the last six games.
This was a gut-check game for the Wahine, who had won just once in the last seven outings and trailed by eight points at the half. That has not been a good situation for UH. Entering the game, the Wahine were 1-10 when trailing at intermission.
They came out strong to start the second half and steadily closed the gap on the scoreboard. Kim Willoughby's layup with 10:37 to play put Hawaii ahead 47-45, but the final result was not secured until the Wahine converted seven of 10 free throws in the final 39 seconds. Gabriel hit five of six and April Atuaia made two of four.
"I just wanted to make it like practice. You make a million of these by yourself, so what is the difference?" Gabriel said. "They were sagging off me all night. We scouted them and Vince (Goo, UH coach) pointed out every time you go to shoot they jump, so I did a lot of shot faking. It can be intimidating, but it's a good thing, he told us."
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Natasja Allen had 10 rebounds and six points last night.
Atuaia said, "Vince challenged us to come out with more energy, especially on defense and to forget about being tired. After three losses on the road, it's good to be home playing in front of the home crowd."
The Wahine (13-11, 7-8 WAC) cut Tulsa's shooting percentage down from 44 percent in the first half to 30 percent in the second half. Allison Curtin bettered her season average of 23 points a game with 27, but the rest of the Golden Hurricanes only managed 37 points.
"I thought we played well to start, then we got tired and didn't play with a lot of intensity," Goo said. "That's how we closed out the first half.
"We said at halftime we were going to go out and play with intensity. At the first timeout, I told them we're a little tired, a little winded and just what are you going to do about it. I think they answered the challenge."
Atuaia finished with 15 points and Willoughby added 12.
The Wahine had a 44-30 cushion in rebounds and Christen Roper set the all-time WAC record for blocked shots with 269. She set the mark with 2:47 to play when she stuffed a Curtin layup attempt.
The Wahine used a three-point play by Atuaia and a 3-pointer by Michelle Gabriel to take a quick 6-0 lead and maintained it until they hit a three-minute cold spell starting with nine minutes left in the half.
Defensively, Hawaii was doing the job against Tulsa, but was not able to take advantage of a considerable edge in rebounding, 20-10 at that point.
Nine consecutive points by Curtin pulled the Golden Hurricane into a 17-17 tie with 6:50 remaining. UH regained the lead on Willoughby's put-back 12 seconds later and twice held slim leads over the next two minutes on a jumper and a 3-pointer by Atuaia.
However, Alison Carney's 3-pointer with a little over three minutes left put the Golden Hurricane ahead 25-24 and they went on to outscore the Wahine 9-2 the rest of the half.
In the final 6:38 of the opening half, the Golden Hurricane produced a 17-6 run that left Hawaii trailing 34-26 at intermission.
After making six of their first 10 field-goal attempts, the Wahine connected on just four of 21 the rest of the half and were unable to generate points with their inside game. Passes sent inside were too long, too short or intercepted.
WAC Standings
WAC GAMES OVERALL W L PCT. W L Louisiana Tech 16 0 1.000 24 2 Fresno St. 9 6 .600 15 10 Rice 9 6 .600 12 12 Tulsa 8 7 .533 13 13 HAWAII 7 8 .467 13 11 SMU 7 9 .438 13 13 San Jose St. 6 9 .400 10 14 Boise St. 6 9 .400 9 16 UTEP 5 10 .333 10 15 Nevada 3 12 .200 10 15 YESTERDAY
SMU 78, Boise St. 61
Louisiana Tech 108, UTEP 54
Rice 71, San Jose St. 63
HAWAII 66, Tulsa 64
GOLDEN HURRICANE (13-13, 8-7 WAC) Hawaii 66, Tulsa 64
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Pongonis 2 3 0 0 15 0 1 6 Brewer 3 6 0 0 24 2 2 8 Curtin 8 22 8 8 37 7 6 27 Carney 4 13 0 0 39 11 1 10 Shriver 1 4 0 0 40 5 2 2 Elliott 3 7 2 2 27 3 0 8 Moody 1 4 0 0 16 1 0 3 Wagoner 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 22 60 10 10 200 30 12 64 RAINBOW WAHINE (13-11, 7-8 WAC)
FG FGA FT FTA MIN REB A TP Abele 3 9 0 0 28 9 1 7 Roper 1 7 2 2 23 5 0 4 Gabriel 5 10 6 8 35 1 4 18 Atuaia 5 13 3 5 33 7 3 15 Allen 3 6 0 0 31 10 1 6 Willoughby 5 10 2 2 27 7 1 12 Nishimoto 0 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 Macfarlane 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Sanders 2 4 0 0 17 4 0 4 Team 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 24 61 13 17 200 44 10 66 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 -- Tulsa 34, Hawaii 26.
3-point goals -- Tulsa 10-23 (Curtin 3-5, Pongonis 2-3, Brewer 2-4, Carney 2-6, Moody 1-4, Elliott 0-1); Hawaii 5-17 (Gabriel 2-2, Atuaia 2-7, Abele 1-5, Sanders 0-1, Nishimoto 0-2).
Personal fouls -- Tulsa 16; Hawaii 10.
Technical fouls -- None. Steals -- Tulsa 9 (Curtin 5, Elliott 3, Brewer); Hawaii 5 (Gabriel 3, Roper, Allen).
Blocked shots -- Tulsa 3 (Shriver 2, Curtin); Hawaii 2 (Roper 2).
Turnovers -- Tulsa 8 (Curtin 4, Shriver 2, Brewer, Elliott; Hawaii 11 (Abele 5, Gabriel 2, Roper, Atuaia, Willoughby, Sanders).
Officials -- Anita Ortega, Jack Jones, Michael Price.
A -- 613.
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