[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
Rainbow Wahine
learn to win
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball players showed up for yesterday's shootaround with the sickening memory still in their minds of having blown a lead late in their opening game of the 25th annual Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"We weren't losing today. There was no way. We couldn't go back into the locker room with another disappointment," said UH tri-captain Jade Abele, who for the second consecutive game topped her career high with 27 points.
What the Wahine did was watch the tape of Friday's overtime loss to Hartford.
"The players know the difference in feeling when they give up a lead, and that was less than 24 hours ago," said UH coach Vince Goo. "Hartford played with a lot of spirit in the second half. We all agreed that was how we wanted to play in the second half. There is always something to learn from losing."
Against Syracuse yesterday, the Wahine held their own in the second half to emerge with their first victory of the season, 72-63, and remained composed when the Orangewomen went to a full-court trapping defense with six minutes to play.
Goo also had his team in a man-to-man defense for the first time this season in an effort to counter Syracuse's propensity for launching shots, an average of 33 per game this season, from beyond the arc.
"We played man-to-man all game except for out-of-bounds under their basket," said Goo. "We had no idea how Syracuse played against a man because Montana used a zone (Friday) the whole game. We told our players that all they had to do was anticipate. That meant denying the girl you are guarding from getting the ball and I thought we played very good off-ball defense."
Syracuse (2-2) did shoot 27 3-pointers, but connected on only eight.
Hawaii plays No. 21 Arizona for fifth place today at 1:10 following the 11 a.m. seventh-place game between Navy and Syracuse.
Montana plays Texas for the championship at 5:30 p.m., while Hartford takes on Virginia for third place at 3:20 p.m.
The Wahine got off to a fast start, taking a 13-2 lead in the first five minutes on baskets by Brittany Grice and Abele, a short jumper and reverse layup by Milia Macfarlane, a 3-pointer by Abele and two free throws from April Atuaia.
A 12-foot jump shot by Abele put UH ahead 21-9 with 10 minutes left in the half. The Orangewomen connected on just four of their first 15 shots against a sticky man-to-man Wahine defense that had success in keeping the Syracuse cutters from penetrating down the lane.
However, the Orangewomen weren't going to shoot 27 percent from the field forever and started to close the gap behind the inside play of Chineze Nwagbo, who had six points, and two baskets by point guard Julie McBride, but UH led 36-28 at the break.
Hawaii held a double-digit lead most of the second half, but saw the advantage drop to six points (67-61) on McBride's layup with 1:57 to play. However, the Wahine did not fold. A free throw by Abele followed by a 3-pointer from the junior wing upped the lead to 10 with 30 seconds left.
"We wanted to come out with fire and stay that way throughout the whole game," said freshman guard Pam Tambini, who had a game-high 11 rebounds, helping UH to a 45-30 margin in that department.
UH freshman wing Dalia Solia, who has found the college game to be much faster paced with more running, scored her 10 points in the first half.
Note: Former Rainbow Wahine players are invited to an alumnae gathering Dec. 14. Events include an alumnae game, pre- and post-game receptions and a ceremony at the half of the 5 p.m. UH-St. Mary's game. For information cal 956-4498 or e-mail monizkah@hawaii.edu.
Hawaii 72, Syracuse 63
Orangewomen (2-2)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Ellerbe 1 1 0 0 8 0 1 2 Campbell 1 6 0 0 24 2 1 3 Wegrzynowicz 2 9 1 1 33 3 1 5 Kohn 5 11 0 0 33 5 2 13 McBride 9 18 2 2 35 5 6 24 Coleman 2 6 0 0 17 2 1 4 Jackson 2 8 0 0 27 6 2 4 Harbut 0 0 0 0 7 1 1 0 Norton 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Nwagbo 4 5 0 0 15 3 1 8 Team 3 Totals 26 64 3 3 200 30 16 63 WaHINE (1-3)
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 9 13 7 11 32 4 1 27 Nishimoto 0 1 2 2 12 2 0 2 Sanders 0 4 0 0 16 2 1 0 Solia 3 9 4 7 16 3 1 10 Macfarlane 3 6 2 2 28 4 4 8 Atuaia 3 11 6 6 27 2 3 13 Spooner 1 1 0 0 6 1 0 2 Tambini 0 2 2 2 25 11 0 2 Aiwohi 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 Lee 1 2 0 2 16 3 1 2 Grice 3 8 0 0 18 5 0 6 Team 7 Totals 23 57 23 32 200 45 11 72
Halftime-Hawaii 36, Syracuse 28.
3-point goals--Syracuse 8-27 (McBride 4, Kohn 3, Campbell), Hawaii 3-10 (Abele 2, Atuaia). Personal fouls-- Syracuse 22, Hawaii 9. Steals-- Syracuse 2 (Kohn, Nwagbo), Hawaii 5 (Abele 3, Spooner, Tambini). Blocked shots-- Syracuse 5 (Jackson 3, Kohn, Coleman), Hawaii 3 (Abele 2, Grice). Turnovers-- Syracuse 7 (Campbell 2, Wegrzynowicz, Kohn, Coleman, Jackson, Nwagbo), Hawaii 7 (Solia 2, Tambini 2, Abele, Lee, Grice).
