Wahine host
Wake, Houston

Houston and Wake Forest, both on an undefeated roll, challenge the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine and each other in the Ala Moana Hotel Paradise Classic starting tomorrow.

The Cougars (8-0), No. 15 in the coaches poll, No. 19 in the Associated Press poll, are off to their third-best start in history. Their biggest moment so far came on the road -- a 63-60 win over then-No. 14 Purdue.

In their last game before taking 13 days off for final exams, the Cougars won a tournament at Northwestern with a 67-64 victory over Virginia.

Houston's top scorer is Sancho Lyttle (21.0 points and 11.8 rebounds per game).

"Lyttle plays at the rim level and is very athletic," said UH coach Jim Bolla.

The Demon Deacons (7-0) have their longest winning streak since the 1987-88 season. They are led by Porsche Jones (15.4 ppg) and Liz Strunk (15.0 ppg).

"These are both good teams. This is a good test for us," said Bolla. "We're fortunate that we have a situation where good teams want to come here. On the mainland, you would have to go to their place to play."

The Wahine (3-2) are on a little roll of their own, winning three consecutive games and have gained confidence since losing the first two games of the season.

"They are not quite as confident as I want them to be, but they are making things happen," said Bolla. "Right now we're about 35 percent efficient when we are in a set offense. We're scoring, but we're not real effective."

Hawaii's scoring is becoming more balanced, with three players averaging in double figures, Jade Abele (16.2 ppg), Janevia Taylor (11.8 ppg) and Alofa Toiaivao (10.4 ppg). The next three, Milia Macfarlane, Amy Sanders and Brittany Grice, are contributing seven points or better a game.

Bolla is quite pleased with the ball-handling of Macfarlane and Trisha Nishimoto. The point guards are averaging just one turnover a game apiece.

The transition game has worked for the Wahine, but there is room for improvement in that phase of their game.

"I'm trying to get them to understand there are enormous options for them to work on," said Bolla. "We are getting a lot of transition chances, but we're only using two options.

"When we scout a team, we see what they do consistently and try to take that away from them. So I don't want our players to come down the floor and do the same thing every time. We don't want our opponent to get comfortable on defense."