[ COLLEGE BASKETBALL ]
Rainbow Wahine shooting
for tournament title
The Hawaii women's basketball team, which has not played a game in 13 days, opens the Territorial Savings Bank Invitational tomorrow at 5 p.m. against Saint Mary's of the West Coast Conference at the Stan Sheriff Center.
That does not mean the Rainbow Wahine (1-4) have been idle. The past two weeks provided the players with time to work on weaknesses and absorb new offenses and defenses installed by the coaches.
"We've been working on shooting in general, working a lot on 3-point shooting," said UH coach Vince Goo.
Past UH teams have been successful on better than 30 percent of their 3-point shots, but this year the success rate has dropped to 20 percent despite the players having many good looks at the basket.
"I think for some of our players it is mechanical and for some it is mental and it could be a combination of both," Goo said. "We've worked on a lot of individual stuff, on timing, and we'll find out Sunday whether we have improved or not."
The Texas-Arlington Mavericks (2-4), the third team in the round-robin tournament, and Saint Mary's both like to push the ball up the floor quickly on offense and will pressure on defense. The Wahine faced full-court, defensive pressure earlier this year.
"I think we've been able to handle a press pretty well so far," Goo said. "We haven't turned the ball over in the back court too often."
The Wahine are averaging 12.8 turnovers per game, the eighth best mark in the country and ahead of last year's team that committed 14 per game.
The coaches also added new offensive and defensive wrinkles and will do the same for the next tournament.
"Hopefully, when we come back from the (holiday) break, we'll have everything in we need for conference," Goo said. "Then it will be a case of making adjustments depending on who we play and what they have personnel wise."
The Saint Mary's Gaels (4-2) are just as young as the Wahine, but are coming off a 53-52 victory over visiting UCLA last weekend.
Coach Michelle Jacoby has been starting three freshmen, guards Lauren Shaughnessy and Serena Benavente, and forward Monica Mertle. The other starters are junior forward Triola Jackson and junior guard Savannah Williams.
"The Gaels have some very good, athletic freshman," Goo said.
The Gaels have allowed 53.5 points per game, 23rd best in the nation. They have road wins at San Diego State and Cal State Northridge and a home victory against Weber State.
The Texas-Arlington (2-4) has wins over Texas A&M-Commerce and Oral Roberts. The Mavericks lost their last game to host Nebraska 81-59.
Sophomore forward Rola Ogunoye is the leading scorer (13.5 ppg) and rebounder (6.8 rpg) for UTA, a member of the Southland Conference.