Wahine open with win

Milia Macfarlane, Janevia Taylor and Trisha Nishimoto were successful getting the ball into the front court against the Southeast Missouri State press to key Hawaii's second victory of the season.

The Rainbow Wahine opened the Waikiki Beach Marriott Invitational with a 79-69 win over the Otahkians to take their first step toward a tournament title.

Brigham Young plays Southeast Missouri State tonight at 7 with UH and BYU playing tomorrow at 4 p.m.

"We felt a little pressure because we didn't always run the press break correctly, but when we ran it right, we got easy baskets," said Macfarlane, a senior who scored a career-high 15 points.

Taylor's 23 points also was a career high for the sophomore. She added seven rebounds, one less than Alofa Toiaivao.

"We watched film over and over of them. They play hard," said Taylor. "We went over so many options in practice. Coach did a good job of getting us past the press and we did."

Brittany Grice followed with 14 points with 6-for-6 shooting from the field and two of those buckets came on jumpers from 10 feet out.

"I worked hard on that last summer. It's nice to see my efforts pay off. I think I shot with a lot more confidence tonight. We're playing to win, not to lose and that makes a huge difference," said Grice.

The Wahine (2-2) added to a five-point halftime lead by outscoring Southeast Missouri State 23-14 during the first 11 minutes of the second half for a 59-45 lead. The 14-point difference was the biggest of the game for UH.

A 9-0 run on a jumper by Grice, two free throws by Macfarlane, Jade Abele's layup and a 3-point play by Taylor put UH that far ahead after the Otahkians had pulled to within five points (50-45) with 9:56 to play. UH kept its lead in double figures for the final 5:39 with the exception of 8 seconds in the final 30 seconds.

"I think our half-court stuff (defense) -- we call it our 1-2-3 because when we play it right, it looks like we have six people on the floor -- bothered them," UH coach Jim Bolla said. "Not a lot of people have seen this defense. It hasn't been done for eight years."

The UH coach was pleased with the balanced scoring and the composure of his players at the end, saying they were really focused on playing smart.

"We want to distribute the points every night, keep spreading it around so we don't have to depend on one or two players," Bolla said. "Jade went out early because of fouls, yet we still had four players in double figures."

Hawaii took a 16-10 lead at the 11:42 timeout with Grice and Macfarlane each scoring four points. The Wahine took advantage of five Southeast Missouri State (4-2) turnovers during the early going.

The Otahkians came back with a 19-7 run as the Wahine hit only four field goals and committed six turnovers in that 6-minute span. Simone Jackson, who tied the score at 21-21, had six points during the run.

Hawaii 79, SEMS 69

Rainbow Wahine (2-2)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	6	14	9	10	33	7	1	23
Abele	4	7	0	0	27	2	0	10
Nishimoto	2	5	0	1	12	5	0	0
Sanders	3	12	1	4	37	6	5	7
Solia	0	2	0	1	10	2	2	0
Macfarlane	3	7	2	2	28	4	5	15
Smith	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Aiwohi	0	0	0	0	4	1	0	0
Lee	0	2	0	0	7	1	0	0
Grice	6	6	2	4	22	6	1	14
Toiaivao	3	7	0	2	18	8	2	6
TEAM						2
Totals	27	62	18	28	200	39	16	79
Otahkians (4-2)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Ryan	1	2	0	0	5	1	0	3
Owsley	2	3	0	0	30	3	4	5
Dunn	0	4	0	0	14	2	2	0
Purcell	2	12	4	6	24	3	2	8
Evans	2	6	0	0	11	1	0	4
Conceicao	8	14	6	7	28	5	1	22
Sweetin	0	2	0	2	6	1	0	0
Russia	3	8	0	0	31	4	2	7
Jackson	7	7	2	4	24	9	2	16
Brown	1	7	2	2	27	8	2	4
TEAM						2
Totals	26	65	14	21	200	39	15	69

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--Hawaii 36, SEMS 31.
3-point goals--Hawaii 7-14 (Taylor 2-2, Abele 2-4, Nishimoto 0-1, Sanders 1-4, Solia 0-1, Macfarlane 2-2) SEMS 3-18 (Ryan 1-1, Owsley 1-2, Dunn 0-4, Purcell 0-4, Conceicao 0-1, Sweetin 0-2, Russia 1-4). Personal fouls--Hawaii 18, SEMS 20.
Steals--Hawaii 8 (Taylor 2, Sanders 2, Macfarlane 2, Grice, Toiaivao), SEMS 11 (Owsley 2, Dunn 2, Purcell 2, Jackson 2, Conceicao, Russia, Brown). Blocked shots--Hawaii 3 (Toiaivao 3), SEMS 6 (Brown 2, Owsley, Purcell, Evans, Conceicao). Turnovers--Hawaii 15 (Taylor 2, Abele 2, Nishimoto, Sanders, Solia, Macfarlan 2, Aiwohi 2, Grice, Toiaivao 2, Team 1), SEMS 19 (Ryan, Owsley 3, Conceicao 6, Russia 4, Jackson, rown 4). Officials--Donovan Lewis, Ryan Wells, Mike Ishikawa. Attendance--861.