FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Callie Spooner and Fairfield's Ivana Podrug battled for a loose ball in the Stags' win over the Wahine last night.
Last shots refuse
to fall for Wahine
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine could not get two shots from close range to fall in the last eight seconds and lost to the Fairfield Stags 67-65 in the first round of the Ala Moana Hotel Paradise Classic before 749 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Wahine play Tennessee Tech for third place today at 5 p.m. Northern Iowa meets Fairfield for the title at 3 p.m.
With 11 seconds to play, Candice Lindsay made the first shot in a one-and-one situation and Janevia Taylor controlled the rebound on the miss in the corner at the end of the Fairfield bench. She called time with 8.7 seconds left.
"We thought the ref had called a sideline play, but when we got out on the court we realized is was a baseline play," said UH point guard Milia Macfarlane.
That had Hawaii coach Vince Goo screaming "line, line" as the players made a quick adjustment.
"When Janevia called time it was on the sideline. When we got on the floor the ball is taken out on the baseline. That's not right," said Goo. "We were going to take it to the basket and draw a foul. Maybe there was one."
The Stags played a soft, fall-back defense not wanting to foul and Macfarlane took the inbound pass, raced up the floor and put up a left-handed layup that rolled off the rim. Taylor grabbed the rebound and got off a three-foot jumper that also failed to drop as the horn sounded.
Hawaii (2-6) built an early 16-6 lead as Jade Abele scored half those points on a layup, two putbacks of her own misses and two free throws. Janevia Taylor hit a pair of long jumpers, Callie Spooner had a layup and April Atuaia made two free throws in the UH spurt.
The Stags (3-5) quickly cut into the Wahine margin on a layup by Katie Hammerer and 3-point baskets by Cathy Dash and Marybeth Chartier to pull to within two points at the 12:07 mark, but Hawaii slowly got the lead back up to six points on Dalia Solia's baseline jumper, a 3-pointer by Atuaia and two free throws by Spooner.
The Wahine, who had just one turnover through the first 13 minutes, committed five down the stretch to help Fairfield's comeback. Abele finished the half with 17 points.
Hawaii went three and a half minutes without a field goal to start the second half while the Stags scored eight unanswered points for a 41-35 lead.
The first UH field goal of the half, by Spooner at the 16:28 mark, and a pair of baskets by Milia Macfarlane got UH to within a point with 14:52 left. Two layups, one after a steal and full-court sprint by Janelle McManus and two free throws by Chartier upped Fairfield's lead to seven, 52-45.
Hawaii crept closer with 6:18 remaining on the second of two consecutive field goals and a free throw by Amy Sanders to make it 58-55.
The Stags then went on an 8-2 run to take a 66-57 lead with 3:17 left on a short jumper by Ivana Podrug, Chartier's layup and two running jumpers by Lindsay.
Hawaii scored the next eight points, the final two coming on a fast break by Abele off a feed from Macfarlane to make the score 66-65 Fairfield with 33 seconds to play.
Northern Iowa 76, Tennessee Tech 73: Emily Berry drove the left lane and shoveled in an underhanded layup with 41 seconds to play to give the Panthers (3-4) their first lead of the second half en route to their third consecutive win.
Following an exchange of backcourt violations, the Golden Eaglettes' (2-5) top scorer, Emily Christian (30 points), launched a 23-foot 3-pointer that bounced off the rim and was rebounded by NIU's Tara King with three ticks on the clock. The freshman forward sank two free throws to seal the win.
The Golden Eaglettes twice built 10-point leads in the second half, the last with 9:44 to play on a jumper by Casey Bradford. NIU cut the TT lead to one with 5:25 left on two free throws by Amy Swisher, who scored eight of NIU's points in the deficit-cutting, 15-6 run.
NIU tied the score at 66 on a three-point play by King, but Christian duplicated that at the other end of the court. She hit a short jumper with 1:52 left for Tech's final 3-point lead 73-70. The Panthers then scored the final six points of the game.
Swisher led Northern Iowa with 27 points with King and Alex Cook adding 12 apiece. Cook also had a game-high 11 rebounds as the Panthers held a 43-29 advantage in that department.
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Fairfield 67, Hawaii 65
Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
STAGS (3-5) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Isidora 3 8 0 0 27 7 2 6 Miljkovic 3 6 1 2 16 2 0 7 Dash 3 7 2 2 21 8 0 9 McManus 4 11 1 2 29 5 7 9 Chartier 4 10 2 2 38 2 3 11 Lindsay 4 11 1 2 27 5 2 9 Murphy 2 5 0 0 7 0 0 6 Hammerer 1 2 0 0 10 1 0 2 Podrug 3 8 2 2 25 5 2 8 Totals 27 68 9 12 200 38 16 67 WAHINE (2-6) fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Taylor 5 11 0 0 21 5 0 12 Abele 7 20 6 8 36 8 2 21 Sanders 2 7 1 1 28 5 1 5 Solia 2 5 0 0 13 5 1 4 Macfarlane 2 6 1 3 24 3 2 5 Atuaia 3 7 2 2 30 4 0 5 Spooner 2 6 1 2 22 4 0 5 Aiwohi 0 1 0 0 8 0 0 0 Lee 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 Grice 0 0 5 6 14 3 1 5 Totals 23 63 16 22 200 42 9 65
Halftime-Hawaii 35, Fairfield 33.
3-point goals--Fairfield 4-12 (Murphy 2, Dash, Chartier), Hawaii 3-6 (Taylor 2, Abele). Personal fouls--Fairfield 18, Hawaii 9. Steals--Fairfield 3 (McManus, Murphy, Podrug), Hawaii 4 (Abele, Taylor, Macfarlane, Grice). Blocked shots--Fairfield 3 (Miljkovic, Dash, Podrug), Hawaii 2 (Spooner, Aiwohi). Turnovers--Fairfield 8 (Isidora 3, Miljkovic, Dash, Lindsay, Murphy, Podrug), Hawaii 10 (Solia 4, Abele 2, TEAM 2, Taylor, Sanders).
Attendance--2,442.
