[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
Hawaii gives Goo
reason to celebrate
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine did their best to make coach Vince Goo's 57th birthday a happy one last night.
The Wahine defeated Southern Methodist 67-50 in a Western Athletic Conference women's basketball game at the Stan Sheriff Center, their biggest margin of victory this year.
"We had three days off after the road trip when we came back down and discouraged," said sophomore wing Amy Sanders, who helped UH to a 46-42 rebound advantage with eight boards.
"We came in Monday for practice and had three good practices and it showed in how hard we played tonight."
With the exception of one first-half dry spell, the Wahine offense was consistent for the remainder of the game and didn't buckle when SMU (7-7, 3-2 WAC) made an effort to take the lead, something that happened just twice, the last time midway through the first half.
"I remember after a few timeouts after they had made a run that we went out and did things better that we had not been doing during the run, especially on offense," said Goo. "One reason is I thought we played defense all night."
The Wahine (4-9, 2-2) had success in stopping the Mustangs from driving to the basket, something that concerned Goo since a premium had been placed on guarding against SMU's 3-point shooters.
"We had people move their feet well on defense. Our perimeter people did a great job moving their feet and getting to spots where they could defend the 3," said Goo.
The Mustangs did launch 25 treys, but made just six.
"We were running exactly what we wanted to on offense. We did really good coming off picks set by Brittany Grice and Amber Lee," said Jade Abele, who led all scorers with 22 points.
"Dalia (Solia) came off the bench and had a blinder of a game (11 points) and Janevia (Taylor) had her best game of the year and she had to guard (Kendall) Shead and held her to seven points. It's nice to know we can play well both halves and once we get a lead, keep it."
Grice led the Wahine with nine rebounds, two blocked shots and three steals.
The first nine minutes saw each team put together a scoring streak as UH opened with seven consecutive points in the first three minutes, 14 seconds. The Wahine then went cold from the field for the next 5:42 as the Mustangs reeled off 10 unanswered points.
Solia finally ended the Wahine frustration with a 3-point bucket at 11:06 to tie the score at 10 all.
After another tie at 12, Hawaii got a layup from Lee, a steal and 4-foot jumper from Solia, a fast-break layup by Abele and a layup by Brittney Aiwohi to conclude an 8-0 run and a 20-12 lead.
The teams traded a couple of baskets before SMU cut the lead to six points on a free throw by Kim Walter and Kaira White's 3-pointer from the right corner.
Hawaii, taking advantage of two steals late, outscored SMU 10-3 over the final four minutes. Abele drove the lane for a layup, Taylor stripped White of the ball near midcourt and went in for the layup, Abele hit a 17-footer off an inbound pass and Sanders sank a jumper off the glass from 10 feet.
The Wahine shot .429 from the field in the first half while holding SMU to .233 with an aggressive defense. UH was guilty of just six turnovers while the Mustangs committed 10 in the first 20 minutes.
Hawaii increased its 13-point halftime lead to 17 on a trey by April Atuaia and Abele's free throw, then stuttered for two minutes as SMU ran off nine consecutive points to draw within eight points, 38-30.
A 10-5 UH spurt ended the Mustangs' threat.
Notes: The victory was the 330th of Goo's career against 155 losses and the 190th vs. 86 defeats in conference play. ... The Wahine were one short of tying their season highs for assists (14) and steals (nine).
WAC standings
Yesterday
CONFERENCE OVERALL W L Pct W L Pct Louisiana Tech. 4 1 .800 11 2 .846 Rice 3 1 .750 6 7 .462 SMU 3 2 .600 7 7 .500 San Jose St. 2 2 .500 10 3 .769 Tulsa 2 2 .500 9 5 .643 UTEP 2 2 .500 7 6 .538 Boise St. 2 2 .500 5 8 .385 Hawaii 2 2 .500 4 9 .308 Fresno St. 1 4 .200 7 8 .467 Nevada 1 4 .200 2 13 .133
Hawaii 67, SMU 50
Louisiana Tech 84, San Jose State 71
Texas-El Paso 85, Nevada 54
Boise State 52, Fresno State 50
Hawaii 67, SMU 50
MUSTANGS (7-7, 3-2 WAC)
WAHINE (4-9, 2-2 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp White 6 15 0 0 32 5 1 14 Shead 2 6 2 2 24 5 1 7 Gross 3 12 1 2 34 11 0 9 Roberts 1 5 0 0 11 1 0 2 Davis 1 5 0 0 30 6 1 3 Wright 1 3 2 4 10 2 1 4 Leet 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 Walter 1 5 3 4 19 7 1 5 Swinney 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 2 Cossey 2 11 0 0 30 4 1 4 TEAM 1 Totals 18 63 8 12 200 42 6 50
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 Taylor 4 8 1 2 30 8 2 9 Abele 8 15 5 7 36 7 4 22 Sanders 2 7 2 2 28 8 3 6 Solia 4 7 2 2 23 3 2 11 Macfarlane 0 2 0 0 13 3 1 0 Atuaia 3 12 2 2 30 5 1 9 Aiwohi 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 2 Lee 1 1 0 0 7 1 0 2 Grice 3 11 0 3 29 9 0 6 TEAM 2 Totals 26 64 12 18 200 46 13 67
Halftime-Hawaii 34, SMU 21.
3-point goals-- SMU 6-25 (White 2, Gross 2, Shead, Davis), Hawaii 3-10 (Abele, Solia, Atuaia). Personal fouls-- SMU 15, Hawaii 14. Steals-- SMU 3 (Gross 2, Roberts); Hawaii 8 (Grice 3, Taylor 2, Abele, Sanders, Solia). Blocked shots-- SMU 8 (Davis 4, Gross 3, Walter); Hawaii 4 (Grice 2, Lee, Solia); Turnovers-- SMU 15 (Walter 5, White 3, Gross 2, Roberts 2, Cossey 2, Wright); Hawaii 10 (Taylor 5, Aiwohi 2, Solia, Atuaia, Grice). A--463.