[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
Tired Wahine fall
to Tulsa
TULSA, Okla. >> After two terrific games at home, Hawaii ran into hot-shooting Tulsa and suffered through an erratic offensive performance yesterday in a 68-57 defeat at the Reynolds Center.
A crowd of 1,085 watched the Golden Hurricane sweep the season series for the first time and improve to 16-9 and 9-6 in Western Athletic Conference play. Tulsa moved into third in the WAC standings. Hawaii, which fell to 7-17 and 5-10, saw its two-game winning streak end.
"We're really proud of how we competed," Hawaii coach Vince Goo said. "At halftime, we looked slow on offense. I thought we looked more tired tonight than in any of our previous road trips. We could've done better in a lot of areas. It was nice for them to battle as hard as they did."
Hawaii improved in one area since the last meeting in Honolulu. Goo made it a point to remind his post players that Tulsa freshman Jillian Robbins took it to them last time.
The Rainbow Wahine effectively collapsed on Robbins, holding her to 11 points, but weren't prepared for the blitz from beyond the arc. The Golden Hurricane shot 41.4 percent from the field and connected on a season-high 11 of 21 3-pointers.
Sophomore Megan Moody did most of the damage. The 6-foot-2 guard came off the bench and scored 17 points to lead Tulsa. Moody -- who has made 24.8 percent of her 3-pointers this season -- was deadly in burying five of six from beyond the arc.
"She hasn't been shooting very well lately, but we know she can shoot the 3," Goo said. "We played a little soft on her because we were really helping down inside the post. Credit them for hitting 3-point shots."
Hawaii couldn't match Tulsa's shooting despite having three players score in double digits.
Freshman Pam Tambini led Hawaii for the third straight game. Tambini scored 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field. Point guard Janevia Taylor chipped in 15 points on streaky shooting and Jade Abele added 11 points.
Hawaii led just once in the opening minutes of the game and trailed by as many as nine before rallying in the final two minutes of the half.
Taylor sandwiched two treys around a pair of free throws from Tambini to help Hawaii even the score at 27 with 24 ticks left on the clock. But center Becky Heidotten nailed a jumper from the free-throw line with four seconds left in the half to put Tulsa up 29-27.
"We outplayed them. We outhustled them in the first half," Goo said. "We had more fast breaks and we were outrunning them up and down the floor. That was a proud moment for us in the first half."
There would be few proud moments in the second as fatigue and Moody wore down.
Moody took advantage of a fatal five-minute Hawaii lapse in the second half. She capped a 12-0 Tulsa run with back-to-back 3s as the Golden Hurricane broke away from a 31-31 tie.
Hawaii spent the rest of the game in catch-up mode and got no closer than eight the rest of the game.
"We had about two or three turnovers in a row and they converted," Goo said. "That was when we were a step slow on offense."
Hawaii travels to Houston today for a game against Rice tomorrow. Goo said that he might forego practice today given the physical condition of his team.
Notes: Before the game, Goo was applauded by the Tulsa crowd and presented with a gift from Tulsa coach Kathy McConnell-Miller. The present contained an assortment of golf items including tees, a visor and a golf shirt.
WAC women's standings
Yesterday
Conference All games W L Pct. W L Pct. Louisiana Tech 14 1 .933 21 2 .913 Rice 14 1 .933 17 7 .708 Tulsa 9 6 .600 16 9 .640 UTEP 9 7 .563 14 11 .560 SMU 8 7 .533 12 12 .500 San Jose St. 6 9 .400 14 10 .583 Hawaii 5 10 .333 7 17 .292 Boise St. 5 11 .313 8 17 .320 Fresno St. 4 11 .267 10 15 .400 Nevada 2 13 .133 3 22 .120
Tulsa 68, Hawaii 57
Boise State 76, SMU 57
Rice 64, San Jose St. 44
Louisiana Tech 83, UTEP60
Tomorrow (All times Hawaii time)
Louisiana Tech at Boise State, 11 a.m.
Nevada at Fresno State, noon
San Jose State at Tulsa, 10 a.m.
Hawaii at Rice, 3 p.m.
SMU at UTEP, 3:05 p.m.
Tulsa 68, Hawaii 57
WAHINE (7-17, 5-10 WAC)
HURRICANE (16-9, 9-6 WAC)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Abele 3 10 3 4 26 3 1 11 Grice 1 2 3 4 31 4 1 5 Taylor 5 16 2 2 37 4 2 15 Sanders 1 5 0 0 25 5 0 3 Tambini 6 9 4 4 37 1 1 16 Nishimoto 0 1 0 0 8 2 1 0 Solia 0 2 0 0 7 4 1 0 Crouch 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 Macfarlane 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 0 Atuaia 1 5 2 2 19 8 0 4 Spooner 0 1 0 0 3 0 1 0 Aiwohi 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 TEAM 8 Totals 18 53 14 16 200 39 8 57
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 Jaskowiak 2 5 0 0 18 4 0 4 Robbins 4 10 3 7 27 6 1 11 Pongonis 1 7 0 0 21 3 5 3 Brewer 3 10 3 5 37 4 4 11 Mays 0 2 2 2 13 2 1 2 Lundberg 2 5 0 0 20 3 2 5 Merriweather 3 6 1 2 22 3 2 9 Moody 6 8 0 0 28 6 0 17 Heidotten 3 5 0 0 14 4 0 6 TEAM 2 Totals 24 58 9 16 200 37 15 68
Halftime--Tulsa 29, Hawaii 27.
3-point goals--Hawaii 7-20 (Taylor 3-7, Abele 2-6, Crouch 1-1, Sanders 1-2, Tambini 0-1, Nishimoto 0-1, Macfarlane 0-1, Atuaia 0-1), Tulsa 11-21 (Moody 5-6, Merriweather 2-3, Brewer 2-4, Lungberg 1-2, Pongonis 1-6). Personal fouls--Hawaii 14, Tulsa 12.
Steals--Hawaii 9 (Taylor 4, Grice 2, Tambini 2, Abele); Tulsa 14 (Robbins 4, Brewer 3, Merriweather 3, Heidotten 2, Pongonis, Moody). Blocked shots--Hawaii 3 (Abele 2, Grice); Tulsa 7 (Robbins 4, Moody 3); Turnovers--Hawaii 17 (Atuaia 4, Tambini 3, Sanders 3, Taylor 2, Abele 2, Nishimoto, Solia, Macfarlane); Tulsa 13 (Jaskowiak 4, Pongonis 3, Robbins 2, Brewer 2, Moody, Heidotten). Officials--Caudle, Conteras, Van Nest. A--1,085.
