Hawaii comes up
short vs. Spartans

The San Jose State Spartans took over sole possession of second place in the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball standings with a 56-54 victory over Hawaii last night.

The Spartans (14-6, 7-3 WAC) won their fifth consecutive game and sit alone in second because Tulsa and Southern Methodist lost yesterday. It also is SJSU's fifth consecutive win over the Rainbow Wahine.

In another frustrating defeat for Hawaii (8-9, 4-6), which came before 590 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center, the Wahine had 20.6 seconds to either tie or win the game and two shots ended up being air balls.

Hawaii struggled on offense much of the night, but put things together to tie the score at 52-all with 3:08 to play and went ahead by two points with 1:32 left on Alofa Toiaivao's jumper.

Amber Jackson's short jumper in the lane, SJSU's 24th point in the paint, tied the score, and Lamisha Augustine's 12-foot jumper from 12 feet with Jade Abele's hand in her face gave the Spartans the winning points with 27 ticks on the clock.

UH got the ball up court and called time. The play coach Jim Bolla wanted was the same one the Wahine ran at Rice that produced two shots in 8 seconds. This time the Wahine couldn't even hit the rim or backboard on Janevia Taylor's shot from the right or Brittany Grice's baseline jumper from the left.

"We just had a complete breakdown on the last play. We had three options and didn't even see one," said Bolla.

The ball was inbounded to Taylor, who had Abele as a cutter and the first choice off the double screen. She didn't see Abele, then went off the screen.

"We didn't run the play close to what we wanted to and I ended up making a bad decision," said Taylor, who led UH with 16 points.

"Janevia went wide off the screen and that allowed the defense to go with her," said Bolla. "One play didn't lose the game, because we did not shoot well (29 percent from the field) and you have to credit them with playing good defense. It wasn't all us."

The Spartans maintained a three- to five-point lead for the first 9 minutes and were ahead 15-12 with 11:26 to play.

Each team lost a key player, as Augustine, the reigning WAC Player of the Week, went to the bench with two fouls for 6 minutes after 4:14 had elapsed. Abele missed 4 minutes while the trainer checked her left eye after she was run over by Nica Gemo on a player-control foul in the lane.

The Wahine took their first lead (17-15) at the 10:53 mark on a 3-pointer by Taylor and then held a one- or two-point lead for the next 2 minutes before the Spartans' Jessica Kellogg sank her fourth 3-pointer of the half with a little more than 8 minutes left.

The Spartans slowly built the lead to 10 points (36-26) with 2:18 before the half by making five of nine from the floor while UH was struggling with just one field goal in six tries. The Wahine made just two of 11 attempts from the field, including a couple of air balls, in the final 8 minutes.

Toiaivao's 3-point play 1:50 before intermission made the halftime score 36-29 SJSU as neither team scored again.

Abele ended up playing 16 minutes in the half, but was 0-for-3 from the field. Augustine went 1-for-6 in 11 minutes of action.

Abele, moved to the wing in the second half, ended with 10 points. Augustine finished with 15.

Hawaii continued to have frustrating results from the field to start the second half, hitting on just three of its first 14 attempts.

Two easy layups by a wide-open Jackson in the paint helped the Spartans go ahead by 11 points, 46-35, at the 11:50 mark. At that point in the game, the Spartans had outscored UH 20-8 in the paint.

The Wahine put their first sustained run together over the next 7 minutes, outscoring SJSU 17-6. Amy Sanders' rebound and follow-up layup tied the score with 3:08 to play.

"We were getting good looks, but we didn't have any offensive rebounders when we missed," said Abele. "We did a better job of pressuring their 3-point shooter in the second half, but they killed us with their drive and dish (to open teammates under the basket)."

WAC standings

	WAC				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Louisiana Tech	10	1	.909	--	14	5
San Jose State	7	3	.700	2 1/2	14	6
Rice	7	4	.636	3	14	8
SMU	7	4	.636	3	16	5
Tulsa	6	5	.545	4	14	7
Fresno State	5	6	.455	5	13	7
Hawaii	4	6	.400	5 1/2	8	9
UTEP	4	7	.364	6	9	12
Boise State	3	8	.273	7	8	12
Nevada	1	10	.091	9	5	16

Yesterday
Boise St. 87, Tulsa 83, OT
Fresno St. 70, SMU 62
Louisiana Tech 108, Nevada 72
Rice 70, UTEP 60
San Jose St. 56, Hawaii 54

San Jose State 56, Hawaii 54

Spartans (14-6, 7-3 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
McGlaston	1	1	0	1	40	2	11	2
Harris	0	5	2	3	17	2	0	2
Kellogg	5	10	0	0	33	0	0	14
Gemo	2	6	0	0	35	8	0	4
Uiagalelei	0	3	0	0	8	1	1	0
Jackson	8	10	1	4	33	10	0	17
Reynolds	1	1	0	0	5	0	0	2
Augustine	5	14	5	6	29	6	2	15
Team						7
Totals	22	50	8	14	200	36	14	56
Wahine (8-9, 4-6 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	4	13	6	6	35	1	0	16
Abele	4	8	0	0	36	7	3	10
Sanders	2	7	5	7	35	8	3	10
Crouch	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	0
Macfarlane	0	2	0	0	21	1	2	0
Spooner	0	0	0	0	3	0	2	0
Grice	1	13	4	6	37	13	3	6
Toiaivao	5	11	2	3	28	6	0	12
Team						1
Totals	16	54	17	22	200	38	13	54

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 -- San Jose State 36, Hawaii 29.
3-point goals -- San Jose State 4-10 (Kellogg 4-8, Harris 0-1, Uiagalelei 0-1), Hawaii 5-16 (Abele 2-4, Taylor 2-6, Sanders 1-4, Macfarlane 0-2). Personal fouls -- San Jose State 19, Hawaii 18. Fouled out -- Kellogg.
Steals -- San Jose State 6 (Augustine 3, Kellogg 2, McGlaston), Hawaii 5 (Abele 2, Grice, Sanders, Toiaivao). Blocked shots -- San Jose State 0, Hawaii 3 (Abele, Grice, Toiaivao). Turnovers -- San Jose State 18 (McGlaston 8, Kellogg 4, Gemo 2, Jackson 2, Augustine, Harris), Hawaii 15 (Abele 5, Taylor 4, Macfarlane 2, Toiaivao 2, Grice, Sanders). Officials -- Johnson, Yamasaki, Moreno. A -- 590.