Rainbow Wahine streak
to big road win vs. SMU

DALLAS >> When Hawaii women's basketball coach Jim Bolla heard last Saturday that Southern Methodist had been upset by Nevada, he was surprised, but said, "Now we know they can be beaten."

That is exactly what the Rainbow Wahine did last night against the Mustangs in a Western Athletic Conference game at Moody Coliseum.

Hawaii (6-5, 2-2) topped SMU (12-3, 3-2) 70-63 for its first road victory this year. It was just the second win in seven tries at Moody for the Wahine, as well as the first home loss in 10 games for the Mustangs.

"We haven't won here since my freshman year," said senior co-captain Jade Abele, who recorded her first double-double of the season with game highs of 20 points and 13 rebounds.

"In pregame and practice the last few days I couldn't miss, but I haven't shot well in games," she said. "As a leader, I'm expected to get a few more points than what I've been doing."

In a game of spurts and eight lead changes, Hawaii enjoyed the biggest run at the right time, outscoring the Mustangs 23-10 over the final 11 minutes.

Trailing 53-47, Abele scored eight consecutive points, offset only by a jumper from SMU's Katy Cobb to tie the score at 55-55. Amy Sanders followed with 3-pointers from the left and right sides for a six-point UH lead.

The Mustangs rallied to tie at 63-63 with 2:05 left on another Cobb jumper, but Sanders answered that with a 14-foot jump shot at the other end.

Alofa Toiaivao then rebounded an Abele miss and scored. After an SMU miss, Toiaivao took a lead pass from Milia Macfarlane to lay the ball in with 11.6 seconds to go before Macfarlane sank a free throw for the final score.

Bolla told Abele, who is averaging 7.7 points in three WAC games, that she was pulling the string on her shots, and not following through with her hand.

There also was instruction from Bolla for all players to take the shot when they had a good look, not pass the chance up and dribble into a more difficult shooting situation. That is what happened against San Jose State last Saturday.

"We wanted them to take jumpers right away and they did. We also used a two-guard front and put Jade on the wing, which freed her up for more shooting," Bolla said. "We didn't use that offense in preseason, so the WAC teams haven't seen it yet."

Hawaii used a zone defense to start the game, hoping to negate SMU's inside game and force the Mustangs to prove they could shoot from beyond the arc. The Mustangs met the challenge with six 3-pointers in the first half, but made just one after intermission when the Wahine played mostly man-to-man defense.

Still, the bright spot for the Wahine was their ability to finish the game offensively on a positive note

"We ran what we wanted to run and got two nice 3s from Amy," Abele said. "They didn't go with a full-court press on us and we worked on free throws all week."

Hawaii was 10-for-13 from the free-throw line after going 6-for-12 against San Jose State.

"Our players are starting to realize they can play with these teams, and we did a good job on the boards in the second half," Bolla said.

Sanders finished with 16 points and Toiaivao accounted for all 13 of Hawaii's bench points.

After shooting 28 percent from the field in their last game, the Wahine improved to 38 percent last night. The UH defense also held SMU to 35 percent from the field.

The team left immediately after the game via bus for Ruston, La., where the Wahine play Louisiana Tech (9-4, 5-0) tomorrow.

WAC standings

Yesterday
Hawaii 70, Southern Methodist 63
Tulsa 74, Rice 61
Louisiana Tech 66, San Jose State 52
Fresno State 59, Boise State 53
Texas-El Paso 70, Nevada 54

Tomorrow
Hawaii at Louisiana Tech, 2:30 p.m. HST
Nevada at Boise State
San Jose State at Southern Methodist
Fresno State at Texas-El Paso
Texas A&M-CC at Tulsa

Hawaii 70, SMU 63

SMU (12-3, 3-2 WAC)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Shead	5	14	0	0	35	11	6	12
Cobb	5	10	0	0	31	1	1	10
Dodds	7	23	2	5	31	8	4	16
Greenard	1	4	0	0	24	3	1	2
Davis	2	10	2	2	36	9	1	8
Gross	3	8	0	0	19	5	0	9
Shepherd	2	3	0	0	10	2	1	4
Roberts	1	3	0	0	10	2	0	2
Barker	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0
Team						4
Totals	27	75	4	7	200	45	14	63

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.

Halftime -- SMU 39, Hawaii 31.

3-point goals -- Hawaii 8-21 (Sanders 4-6, Abele 2-9, Macfarlane 1-2, Taylor 1-4), SMU 7-24 (Gross 3-6, Davis 2-6, Shead 2-7, Shepherd 0-1, Cobb 0-1, Dodds 0-2). Personal fouls -- Hawaii 10, SMU 11.

Steals -- Hawaii 4 (Taylor, Macfarlane, Nishimoto, Toiaivao), SMU8 (Shead 5, Dodds 2, Davis). Blocked shots -- Hawaii 3 (Toiaivao 2, Abele), SMU 6 (Davis 3, Shepherd, Greenard, Dodds). Turnovers -- Hawaii 12 (Macfarlane 4, Abele 2, Grice 2, Nishimoto 2, Sanders, Toiaivao), SMU8 (Davis 3, Dodds 2, Shead, Cobb, Gross). Officials -- Fletcher, Caudle, Copeland. A -- 758.