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STAR-BULLETIN / 2004 UH's Jade Abele fought her way to the basket against Louisiana Tech's Tasha Crain during a game last year. Crain, the reigning WAC Player of the Week, and her Lady Techsters teammates visit Hawaii for a contest tomorrow night.

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Wahine try to end slide
against Lady Techsters

The Rainbow Wahine picked a bad time to try to halt their longest losing streak of the season at three when they host Louisiana Tech tomorrow.

WAHINE HOOPS Who: Louisiana Tech at Hawaii When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Where: Stan Sheriff Center Radio/TV: None.

That's no easy task for the Hawaii basketball team considering the Lady Techsters are running away to another Western Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 10-1 league record.

LaTech (16-5 overall) also has preseason WAC Player of the Year Erica Taylor back from maternity leave and has never lost to UH in 14 previous meetings.

"We need to get back on track. We are still in a position to control our own destiny," said Hawaii coach Jim Bolla.

"We've worked on a lot of stuff that LaTech runs. They traditionally have been a second-half team this year. They come out charging. It seems to be their style. We can't get complacent if we get up early."

Earlier this year at Ruston, La., the Wahine were up by 10 points nearing the end of the first half, only to have the Lady Techsters go on an 8-0 run to trail by two at the break. The momentum carried over to the second half. Hawaii came out flat, got into foul trouble and LaTech pulled away to a 14-point victory.

This is the third consecutive week the Wahine (8-9, 4-6) will face the current WAC Player of the Week. LaTech's Tasha Crain is that player. She averaged 25 points, six assists, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals in home wins over Fresno State and Nevada.

Crain's season average is 17.7 points per game. She not only has led LaTech in scoring 12 of the last 13 games, but is the team assist leader with 83. That makes it difficult to double-up on the 5-foot-7 junior guard.

Bolla says the Wahine are pretty healthy, but has cut practice sessions short to make sure his team is over last week's flu bug. The team reviewed the end-of-game situation that went awry against San Jose State and led to a one-point loss. Bolla, who believes in staying calm and letting his players execute, said it was his fault.

"Jade (Abele) was wide open and I should have called another timeout when I saw the play breaking down. We would have still had time. It was a learning experience," said Bolla.

The Wahine have worked on getting the ball inside. Every player has the option to shoot when she receives the ball, but Bolla doesn't want them to force the issue.

"We don't want our players to try to manufacture a score if it is not there immediately. We tell them not to force it, that they will get another option," said Bolla.