GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Callie Spooner of Hawaii went to the basket against UTEP's Niki Avery and Marta Dydek last night.

UH figures it out
against UTEP

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The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine opened a two-game homestand with a 74-63 victory over Texas-El Paso in a Western Athletic Conference women's basketball game witnessed by 358 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.

The Wahine took a 21-point lead at the half, then turned back all UTEP challenges in the second half to improve their domination of the Miners to 14-1 in the series.

"We shot the ball well. The first half was almost like a clinic out there," said UH coach Jim Bolla.

"Our focus (in practice) has been more on what we need to do than the other team. If we don't execute, it doesn't matter what the other team does. When you get 22 assists on 28 field goals made, that is a pretty good average."

The 22 assists is a season high for UH (7-6, 3-3 WAC).

Hawaii manufactured a 23-6 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game by hitting seven of its first 14 field-goal attempts.

Amy Sanders led the way with 11 points, including a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around a baseline drive and layup by Milia Macfarlane that put the Wahine ahead by 17 points with 10:24 to go.

Hawaii had a lot of success with the backdoor pass, resulting in easy layups.

"It was fundamental. In past games we have faltered because we don't run the backdoor," said Macfarlane, who scored 15 points and had six assists. "When we don't run it, people start creating things and it becomes a mess. We hoped they would pressure us because we knew we could break it and get layups."

At the other end, the Wahine defense made it difficult for the Miners by denying penetration, forcing outside shots that often came with the shot clock about to expire. UTEP made just four of its first 18 attempts from the field and finished the half with a .219 shooting percentage (7-for-32).

Hawaii increased its lead to 21 points with 5:42 left in the half with Brittany Grice hitting a baseline jumper from the right side and Alofa Toiaivao, who had 12 points in the half, scoring twice -- on a layup and tip-in.

A 7-1 run punctuated by Sanders' 3-pointer with 30 seconds left gave the Wahine a 40-19 lead entering the locker room.

Sanders, who finished the game with 19 points and 10 rebounds, said, "Before the game I didn't feel that good. I don't always know when I'm going to have a good night (shooting). I think we just were having so much fun in the first half, that I was just catching and shooting.

"We work on that backdoor play every day in practice, but we haven't gotten many this year. We executed tonight."

Toiaivao, who scored a game-high 20 points and led all rebounders with 12, made her first start of the season as Bolla had to change his lineup late yesterday when he learned Janevia Taylor could not play.

Taylor missed the game after spraining her right ankle in the shootaround earlier in the day. That ended a run of 31 consecutive starts for the sophomore guard going back to the first WAC game a year ago at Fresno State.

The Wahine made their first three shots of the second half to lead by 25 points (47-22), then had to withstand a 3-point barrage by the Miners, who connected on seven tries from beyond the arc to cut their deficit to 14 points (65-51) with 6:32 left in the game.

UTEP traded three points at its offensive end for two at the other as the Wahine kept scoring, mostly on fast breaks that culminated in easy layups. Over a 4-minute span, five of seven UH baskets were layups. The other two were short jumpers by Callie Spooner and Toiaivao.

After shooting over 47 percent from the field in both home wins last weekend, the Miners were held to 31 percent from the field by the Wahine.

Hawaii enjoyed its best shooting percentage (.560) of the season, making 28 of 50 from the field.

Note: Grice's eight blocked shots ties the school record held by Christian Roper. The 14 team blocks breaks the old record of 12.

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WAC standings

	WAC				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Louisiana Tech	6	0	1.000	--	10	4
SMU	4	2	.667	2	13	3
Tulsa	4	2	.667	2	12	4
San Jose State	3	3	.500	3	10	6
Rice	3	3	.500	3	10	7
Hawaii	3	3	.500	3	7	6
UTEP	3	3	.500	3	8	8
Fresno State	3	4	.429	3 1/2	11	5
Boise State	1	5	.167	5	6	9
Nevada	1	6	.143	5 1/2	5	12

Yesterday
San Jose State 64, Boise State 47
Rice 63, Fresno State 59
Hawaii 74, UTEP 63
Tulsa 77, Nevada 68

Tomorrow
Louisiana Tech at SMU
Tulsa at Fresno State
Boise State at Hawaii, 7:05 p.m. Hawaii time
Nevada at Rice
UTEP at San Jose State

Hawaii 74, UTEP 63

MINERS (8-8, 3-3 WAC)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	2	5	0	0	16	2	2	4
Avery	4	8	0	0	22	7	2	10
Krezel	5	17	3	5	28	3	3	14
Dydek	1	6	1	1	14	1	0	3
Piekarska	1	5	1	2	10	0	0	4
Rayos	1	4	2	2	15	5	1	5
Launiainen	4	11	0	0	30	0	3	12
Phelps	0	4	0	0	17	3	0	0
Yancey	0	1	0	0	9	2	0	0
Goslin	0	1	1	4	7	4	0	1
McGee	4	9	0	0	32	9	2	10
Team						4
Totals	22	71	8	14	200	40	13	63

RAINBOW WAHINE (7-6, 3-3 wac)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Abele	1	2	2	3	32	5	8	4
Nishimoto	1	2	0	0	8	1	0	2
Sanders	7	12	1	4	31	10	2	19
Cariaga	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Macfarlane	3	6	8	10	32	4	6	14
Spooner	3	4	1	3	22	2	3	7
Tambini	0	4	0	1	19	2	1	0
Lee	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Grice	4	5	0	0	18	2	0	8
Toiaivao	9	15	2	3	35	12	2	20
Team						2
Totals	28	50	14	24	200	40	22	74

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 -- Hawaii 40, UTEP 19.

3-point goals -- UTEP 11-29 (Launiainen 4-8, McGee 2-3, Avery 2-4, Piekarska 1-1, Rayos 1-1, Krezel 1-9, Taylor 0-1, Yancey 0-1, Dydek 0-1), Hawaii 4-10 (Sanders 4-6, Abele 0-1, Nishimoto 0-1, Macfarlane 0-1, Tambini 0-1). Personal fouls -- UTEP 19, Hawaii 16. Fouled out -- None. Technical fouls -- UTEP (team).

Steals -- UTEP 8 (Krezel 2, Phelps 2, Avery, Dydek, Piekarska, McGee), Hawaii 9 (Abele 3, Spooner 2, Sanders, Macfarlane, Tambini, Grice). Blocked shots -- UTEP 3 (Dydek 2, Rayos), Hawaii 14 (Grice 8, Toiaivao 3, Abele, Macfarlane, Spooner). Turnovers -- UTEP 14 (Taylor 3, Rayos 3, McGee 3, Dydek 2, Avery, Piekarska, Goslin), Hawaii 16 (Toiaivao 6, Macfarlane 3, Abele 2, Sanders 2, Cariaga, Spooner, team). Officials -- Pence, Yamasaki, Baptista. A -- 973.