[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
Wahine open with loss
for first time in 15 tries
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball team's 14-game win streak in home openers is over.
Coach Vince Goo's teams always have taken great pride in their defense, in limiting the opponent to the fewest number of good looks at the basket. That is an aspect of their game this year's team needs to work on more.
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons made 45 percent of their field-goal attempts, including 10 of 22 from beyond the arc, to defeat UH 69-63 yesterday in the first round of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resorts Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Lipscomb plays Washington, an 82-70 winner over Maine, for the championship at 5 p.m. Hawaii and Maine meet for third place at 3 p.m.
The Wahine started slow, making just two of their first 10 attempts from the field, and spent the remainder of the game playing catch-up.
UH led once briefly, 4-3, as Pam Tambini scored the first four points, but Julie Martin hit a 3-pointer and Lipscomb held a seven- to 10-point lead for most of the first half.
The Wahine shot only 29 percent from the floor and had difficulty handling the Lipscomb trap, which the Lady Bisons sprung often in the front court. The Wahine survived the sloppy, 13-turnover first half to only trail at the break 30-27 due to a 9-2 spurt over the last four minutes.
Brittney Aiwohi hit a 13-foot jumper just left of the free-throw line, Janevia Taylor made one of two free throws, Jade Abele hit two charity tosses, Taylor stole the ball and went the length of the court for a layup and April Atuaia followed with a driving layup.
Goo abandoned his platoon system after about 10 minutes and began making player-by-player substitutions in an effort to find a smooth-working combination at both ends of the court.
"I didn't feel we had 10 people ready to play. This involved players from both groups and we were looking for people to play defense," said Goo. "We were not moving quick enough to cover their shooters."
Atuaia grabbed a rebound and scored a quick basket to cut Lipscomb's lead to 30-29 a few seconds into the second half, but the Lady Bisons responded by scoring the next 17 points to take a 47-29 lead.
During that run the Wahine were 0-for-8 from the field and missed both free-throw attempts. Dalia Solia scored on a layup at 14:50 to end the UH drought.
Goo made another move five minutes into the second half when he used two point guards, rotating Milia Macfarlane, Taylor and Trisha Nishimoto in an effort to get more quickness on defense.
"We wanted to get more pressure up top, to put more pressure on the ball," said Goo.
From the 15:16 mark to 4:54, the Wahine capitalize on better defense to outscore Lipscomb 27-11 and cut the Lady Bisons' lead to 58-56. However, Hawaii would connect on only three of their last 10 field-goal shots. They also missed free throws while Lipscomb canned seven of eight down the stretch.
"We could have tied the game earlier, but we missed our free throws and didn't hit our perimeter shots even though most of them were good looks," said Goo.
Atuaia said, "We weren't nervous, but we started off really slow. We went back and forth, got within two or three points, then we let down at both ends of the court and suddenly they were up by eight."
Atuaia was the only Wahine in double figures, with 17 points. Freshman Amber Lee pulled down 12 rebounds.
Courtney Boyton, with four 3-pointers, led Lipscomb with 15 points.
Washington 82, Maine 70: The Huskies rode the early scoring of 6-foot-4 senior center Andrea Lalum and received their final 14 points from senior point guard Giuliana Mendiola to outlast the Black Bears.
Mendiola scored 12 of those 14 points in the final 4:27 after Maine had to cut its deficit to five points 70-65 and Lalum was on the bench with a bruised left thigh. Mendiola finished with 21 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Lalum scored a career-high 28 points.
The first half saw the teams swap the lead several times with short scoring spurts. The Huskies took an early 9-5 lead, but the Black Bears put a 15-6 run together to grab a 20-15 advantage.
Washington came back behind the inside shooting of Lalum, who also demonstrated a deft touch from the 12- to 15-foot range with her jumper to retake the lead, 24-22. Lalum had 15 of her points in the half.
The teams then traded baskets through four ties before Washington forged ahead 35-29 on buckets by Nicole Castro, Jill Bell and Lalum and two free throws by Mendiola.
Senior forward Heather Ernest led Maine with 27 points and 10 rebounds.
Lipscomb 69, Hawaii 63
LADY BISONS (1-0)
WAHINE (0-1)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Head 2 7 0 0 19 1 0 6 Ramsey 2 6 5 6 33 6 3 10 Boynton 5 11 1 1 30 6 1 15 Daly 2 7 1 2 20 8 2 6 Ester 5 7 0 0 17 3 2 10 Martin 3 6 1 2 20 3 3 9 Roller 0 2 2 2 14 2 1 2 Bradley 0 3 0 0 5 0 0 0 Osborn 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 Pate 2 7 1 4 17 5 1 5 Woods 0 1 0 0 5 2 0 0 Blake 1 3 4 6 16 3 1 6 Totals 22 61 15 23 200 46 14 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.
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Abele 0 5 2 4 27 5 4 2 Macfarlane 3 14 2 2 29 1 1 9 Atuaia 6 10 4 6 23 7 2 17 Tambini 2 4 0 0 14 4 0 4 Grice 0 9 2 2 13 6 0 2 Taylor 2 7 1 2 21 3 1 5 Nishimoto 1 2 0 2 6 1 1 3 Sanders 4 8 0 0 18 0 1 9 Solia 1 5 2 2 14 4 1 4 Crouch 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 Spooner 2 4 0 1 4 3 0 4 Aiwohi 1 3 0 2 6 1 0 2 Lee 1 2 0 0 22 12 0 2 Totals 23 73 13 23 200 49 12 63
Halftime--Lipscomb 30, Hawaii 27.
3-point goals--Lipscomb 10-22 (Boynton 4, Martin 2, Head 2, Ramsey, Daly), Hawaii 4-22 (Nishimoto, Sanders, Macfarlane, Atuaia). Personal fouls--Lipscomb 22, Hawaii 17. Steals--Lipscomb 11 (Boynton 5, Pate 3, Ramsey 2, Blake), Hawaii 9 (Abele 3, Lee 2, Macfarlane, Atuaia, Sanders, Crouch). Blocked shots--Lipscomb 1 (Pate), Hawaii 5 (Lee 3, Grice, Abele). Turnovers--Lipscomb 18 (Pate 4, Woods 3, Head 3, Boynton 2, Ramsey, Daly, Ester, Martin, Osborn, Blake), Hawaii 15 (Taylor 4, Sanders 2, Crouch 2, Abele, Macfarlane, Atuaia, Tambini, Nishimoto, Solia, Aiwohi).
A--673.
