COURTESY OF FRESNO STATE UNIVERSITY
Aiea High School graduate Aritta Lane scored a college-high 24 points against Washington State.
Living in the
fast LaneAiea High School graduate
Aritta Lane is leading the WAC
in scoring for Fresno State
aybe it was the six weeks of training with a boxing champion in the fall.
Or the realization that somebody had to step up and become the team leader after the loss of six seniors from last season.
Or the fact that she will be a "grown-up woman" of 20 two weeks from today.
Whatever the stimulus, 2001 Aiea High School graduate Aritta Lane led Fresno State's women's basketball team in scoring in each of its first seven games this season, topped by a career-high 25 yesterday against Santa Clara.
She is the leading scorer in the Western Athletic Conference.
"I kind of decided to take on that role, to turn it up a notch and be a leader," Lane said.
Lane is averaging 18.6 points -- more than double her career average -- and 6.9 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs.
On Wednesday, the 6-foot-1 junior scored 22 points in 30 minutes, including 10 of 11 free throws, in a 70-65 victory at Long Beach State.
Lane said her focus became clear in the second half of the season-opening game at Washington State.
"One of my teammates and I pretty much sold out," she said. "People were going to follow us or they weren't. . . . Since then, they have followed us."
Lane scored 24 in that game. (Her all-time high is 35 in a high school game in 2001, when she led Aiea to the HHSAA state championship.
The Bulldogs are only 3-3, but the losses were to WSU, 22nd-ranked Utah and to Oklahoma State by 7 points in the championship game of the Cowgirl Classic.
If Fresno State is tougher in its second season under coach Stacy Johnson-Klein, it probably is because preseason conditioning was conducted by women's world lightweight boxing champion Jennifer Alcorn.
"We boxed against bags three days a week and ran 6 miles a day with her on the other two days for six weeks," Lane said. "It was pretty vigorous -- we were intense-looking people ... the talk of the school.
"Our bodies learned a lot," she said.
Lane ran a mile in 5 minutes, 56 seconds ("I was booking it") and in a machine-measured drill, she hit a boxing bag 888 times in 3 minutes.
"I think I was closer to a thousand," she said.
Lane didn't get hurt boxing, but she broke her nose in a game two weeks ago -- and missed no playing time.
"My composure is a lot better since boxing," she said.
Few people know that Lane "sat on a couch for three months" last spring-summer and played no basketball after ligament reconstruction surgery on her left ankle in April.
She had had arthroscopic surgery on the same ankle in October 2002, but she sprained it four more times last season.
"My ankle is really good and my balance is awesome now," she said.
Fresno State will play Hawaii in its first and last regular-season WAC games, at Fresno Jan. 3 and at the Stan Sheriff Center on March 6.
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Sierra, Fong, Hardin
and Dias come home
Four local girls arrived home yesterday for a basketball visit with the Missouri Valley College women's team.
They are juniors Maricris Sierra (Nanakuli '01) and Megan Fong (Roosevelt '01 of Wahiawa), senior Carleen Hardin (Sacred Hearts '00 of Aiea) and sophomore Jasmine Dias (Aiea '02), who is redshirting.
Freshman Jaushlyn Mansinon (Kailua '03) is starting point guard on the junior varsity team.
Missouri Valley coach Bill Wolf has had as many as seven players from Hawaii on his roster -- thanks to the efforts of Doris Sullivan and the HSN Foundation. He got his team into the Hoop & Surf Classic to give his Hawaii players a trip home and the others a taste of Hawaii.
Hardin has blossomed as a scorer just in time for the trip. She made career highs of 17 and 15 points, including seven 3-point goals, in Missouri Valley's last two games.
"I can't wait to come home," she said Thursday. "We can't stop talking about it."
Sierra was not expected to play this season because of ACL surgery, but she has been a surprise with 7.4 points per game. Fong is a three-year starter at point guard.
Hardin said that 4 to 6 inches of snow was expected at Marshall, Mo., on Friday. The Missouri Valley team hopes to have a week of R&R and sun before it plays its first game in the Hoop & Surf on Friday.
All games are at Kilauea District Park gym. MoVal (4-5) plays Morningside of Iowa, which is ranked sixth in NAIA Division II, Friday at 2 p.m. and Mount Marty of South Dakota at noon on Saturday, Dec. 20.
Hoops elsewhere
>> Menlo: Senior guard Ki'i Spencer-Vasconcellos (Punahou '97) has been in double digits for Menlo's last four games and is averaging 18.5 points per game. She scored 27 against Eastern Oregon.>> Cal State-L.A.: Junior guard Monica Tokoro (Iolani '01 of 'Aiea) has picked up where her All-America sophomore season left off. Tokoro scored 28 points and had seven assists last night in an 84-76 loss to Vanguard.
Tokoro is averaging 22.5 points in her first four games, and the 5-foot-3 guard has made 57.6 percent (38 of 66) of her field-goal attempts, despite intense defensive pressure against her. She is 92.3 percent (12 of 13) on free throws.
Last season Tokoro was the second-leading scorer in NCAA Division II with a 25.1 average.
>> UC-Santa Barbara: Junior Brandy Richardson (Kalaheo '01) missed a game because of an injury for the first time. Richardson collided with a teammate in pre-game warmups before the Gauchos' opener and suffered a concussion.
She has returned to the starting lineup and the 15th-ranked Gauchos are 4-1.
>> Gonzaga: Freshman point guard Rachel Kane (Punahou '03 of Kahaluu) has averaged 30.6 minutes in the first eight games -- second on the team. She leads the Zags (3-5) in steals (14) and averages 6.3 points per game, though she has taken the fewest shots of any starter.
Junior guard Jodi Nakashima (Roosevelt '01 of Waipahu) started her fifth career game for Boise State on Wednesday against Gonzaga.
Nakashima says the thing she likes best about Boise State is "that I get to experience all four seasons and the little squirrels."
