Lady Mavs sink
UH to win tourney
The Hawaii women's basketball team dug itself a deep hole in the first 10 minutes and never quite reached ground level last night against Texas-Arlington.
The Lady Mavericks won the Territorial Savings Bank Invitational at the Stan Sheriff Center by beating the Rainbow Wahine 59-51 in front of a crowd of 614.
Since the three tournament teams all finished 1-1, Texas-Arlington claimed the title by allowing the fewest points.
"I didn't think we had much focus the whole game. UTA just outplayed us," said UH coach Vince Goo.
The Wahine (2-5) took just 16 shots in the first half and only managed to sink field goals with 15:06, 11:16 and 4:11 left before the break.
The Wahine struggled with the Lady Mavericks' full-court press and trapping defense. In the first 8 minutes and 12 seconds, the Wahine managed to get off just three field-goal attempts, scoring only on April Atuaia's 5-foot baseline jumper from the left side at 15:03. They routinely failed to get shots off because they were guilty of 10 turnovers.
The Mavericks held a 16-4 lead at that point.
"We worked on beating their press, but they are a gutsy team, came out firing and put us back on our heels," said Hawaii's Jade Abele, who scored 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds, both team highs.
The next four minutes were slightly better as the Wahine finally got a second field goal on a putback by Dalia Solia, and only turned the ball over once. But Texas-Arlington increased its lead to 24-9.
The final seven minutes prior to intermission had the Wahine closely match the Lady Mavericks in points by hitting eight of 10 attempts from the free-throw line, but they still trailed by 14 points, 33-19, at the half.
UH had a miserable field goal percentage (.188) in the first half, while UTA made 50 percent of its 26 attempts from the field.
"UTA was very quick, very fast and anticipated well. With the turnovers, we gave them a lot of easy layups in the first half," Goo said. "We didn't do a good job in the first half at all."
Abele led a Wahine resurgence in the first 10 minutes of the second half by scoring 12 points. Buckets by Callie Spooner and Solia and free throws by Atuaia and Amy Sanders cut the UTA lead to five points at 44-39 with 7:35 to play.
The Lady Mavericks (3-5) held that slim lead for the next six minutes as neither team could put more than two consecutive baskets together.
Abele and Milia Macfarlane 3-pointers drew UH to within two points, 53-51, with 48 seconds left, but UTA hit six of seven free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Texas-Arlington 59, Hawaii 51
LADY MAVERICKS (3-5) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Buchanan 3 6 4 6 36 5 2 12 Lewis 4 13 0 0 25 4 0 11 Lane 1 2 0 0 15 0 0 2 Thompson 1 4 0 0 12 4 1 2 Ogunoye 7 11 4 8 29 12 0 18 Graves 0 4 0 0 10 0 1 0 Johnson 1 2 2 2 16 5 2 4 Wesley 0 5 0 1 12 0 0 0 Wallace 1 3 0 0 5 1 1 2 Rumph 1 3 0 0 20 2 1 2 Brown 1 3 4 6 20 4 0 6 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 20 56 14 23 200 41 8 59 WAHINE (2-5) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Abele 6 14 5 9 33 7 3 19 Macfarlane 1 1 0 0 15 2 2 3 Atuaia 2 6 3 4 26 3 1 7 Spooner 1 4 2 4 22 5 0 4 Tambini 0 2 2 2 21 2 0 2 Taylor 1 6 1 2 23 4 1 3 Nishimoto 0 0 2 2 3 0 0 2 Sanders 0 3 2 4 18 2 0 2 Solia 3 4 3 5 22 4 1 9 Lee 0 4 0 0 11 2 0 0 Grice 0 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Totals 14 44 20 32 200 36 8 51
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-UTA 33, Hawaii 19.
3-point goals-- Hawaii 3-12 (Abele 2-6, Macfarlane 1-1, Atuaia 0-2, Tambini 0-1, Sanders 0-1, Solia 0-1). UTA 5-18(Lewis 3-7, Buchanan 2-5, Graves 0-3, Wesley 0-3, Thompson 0-2). Personal fouls-- Hawaii 18, UTA 26. Technical fouls--none. Steals-- Hawaii 9 (Abele 2,Macfarlane 2, Tambini 2, Grice, Sanders, Solia); UTA 15 (Ogunoye 6,Lewis 3, Rumph 3, Wesley 2, Buchanan). Blocked shots-- Hawaii 4 (Abele 2, Solia, Grice); UTA 1 (Ogunoye); Turnovers-- Hawaii 21 (Abele 6, Taylor 4, Macfarlane 2, Tambini 2, Nishimoto 2, Sanders 2, Atuaia, Spooner, Solia.); UTA 19(Ogunoye 6, Graves 2, Buchanan 2, Rumph 2, Lewis, Thompson, Johnson,Wallace, Wesley, Brown). Officials--Lewis, Yamasaki, Tanibe. A--3,077.
