Rainbow Wahine
powerless in post
vs. Tulsa

Tulsa's Jillian Robbins, perhaps the best post player in the Western Athletic Conference, is hard enough to deal with under normal conditions.

But she was unstoppable last night against Hawaii, and Rainbow Wahine coach Jim Bolla said it was because his centers and power forwards failed to show up.

Bolla wanted to put out a missing-persons alert after the Hurricane dismantled the Wahine 72-62 last night, with a crowd announced at 483 watching at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"I need you to put an ad in the paper. I'm looking for my post players. They've disappeared," Bolla said. "You're not going to win when your post players score eight points and nobody wants to rebound the ball."

Especially when Robbins goes off for 31 points and 11 rebounds.

UH center Brittany Grice didn't get as much help as she might have against Robbins, because of sharpshooting by Tulsa's Megan Moody and Kara Pongonis (who combined for seven 3-pointers). But she wouldn't use it as an excuse.

"I personally should've done a better job defending her," Grice said. "I needed to be the aggressor, but I let her be the aggressor on our homecourt. They got all over the boards."

Hawaii actually outrebounded Tulsa 37-35, but Grice, Callie Spooner, Amber Lee and Alofa Toiaivao -- UH's primary low-post players -- combined for two rebounds in 39 minutes.

The Wahine, who were led by Jade Abele with 15 points, fell to 10-12 and 6-9 in the WAC. They are in seventh place and need to get busy fast with three games left to avoid the conference tournament play-in round.

Tulsa improved to 17-8 and 9-6 in what is likely its last game at Hawaii for a while. The Hurricane join Conference USA next season.

Tulsa led 41-33 at halftime on the strength of Robbins' 17 points and nine boards and a barrage of 3-pointers. Hurricane coach Kathy McConnell-Miller was also pleased with her team's tempo, execution and defense.

"If you're going to run, which we did, you want to take high-percentage shots," she said. "We took a lot of good shots in the first half, we had numbers and we moved the ball up quickly. That doesn't happen without stops."

Robbins' dominance inside helped Pongonis (nine points) and Moody (16) get open looks from beyond the arc. And it worked the other way.

"When Megan and Kara hit those 3s, it forced the (UH) guards to go after them," Robbins said.

Hawaii led 31-30 after Janevia Taylor, who finished with 11 points, hit a 10-foot pull-up jumper at 4:07 before the break.

But the Hurricane scored the next 11 points and never trailed again.

"When Megan is hitting and Pongonis is hitting and Jillian is scoring, you have to give something up," McConnell-Miller said.

The closest UH got in the second half was 47-41 on Milia Macfarlane's 3-pointer at 15:29.

The careers of seniors Abele and Macfarlane will be celebrated tomorrow as they suit up for their final home game, against Rice. Tipoff is 7 p.m.

Tulsa 72, Hawaii 62

Golden Hurricane (17-8, 9-6 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Robbins	11	19	9	11	38	11	0	31
Ridge	0	1	0	0	17	0	4	0
Mays	4	7	0	1	31	1	3	8
Moody	6	9	0	0	37	5	2	16
Heidotten	3	7	0	0	30	5	3	6
Pongonis	3	6	0	0	26	4	3	9
Ormsby	0	0	0	0	8	0	1	0
Irving	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Jaskowiak	1	5	0	0	10	2	2	2
Newby	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
TEAM						7
Totals	28	55	9	12	200	35	18	72
Rainbow Wahine (10-12, 6-9 wac)
	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Taylor	4	12	2	2	33	5	1	11
Abele	6	14	2	2	39	8	5	15
Sanders	4	17	3	3	39	7	3	12
Macfarlane	4	8	0	0	40	3	6	10
Grice	2	8	0	0	18	1	2	4
Spooner	0	1	0	0	4	1	0	0
Tambini	1	1	0	0	3	0	0	2
Aiwohi	1	1	1	2	7	1	0	4
Lee	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0
Toiaivao	1	4	2	2	7	0	0	4
TEAM						11
Totals	23	66	10	11	200	37	17	62

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 -- Tulsa 41, Hawaii 33.
3-point goals -- Tulsa 7-12 (Moody 4-6, Pongonis 3-5, Ridge 0-1), Hawaii 6-19 (Macfarlane 2-3, Aiwohi 1-1, Sanders 1-4, Taylor 1-5, Abele 1-6). Personal fouls -- Tulsa 13, Hawaii 11. Fouled out -- Toiaivao.
Steals -- Tulsa 5 (Robbins 2, Moody, Pongonis, Ormsby), Hawaii 8 (Taylor 5, Sanders 2, Tambini). Blocked shots -- Tulsa 5 (Moody 3, Robbins 2), Hawaii 3 (Abele, Grice, Toiaivao). Turnovers -- Tulsa 17 (Heidotten 5, Moody 3, Robbins 3, Pongonis 2, Ridge 2, Mays, Ormsby) Hawaii 14 (Abele 4, Sanders 4, Lee 2, Macfarlane 2, Aiwohi, Taylor). Officials -- Price, Fujimoto, Moreno. A -- 483.

WAC standings

	WAC				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Louisiana Tech	13	2	.867	--	17	6
Rice	11	4	.733	2	18	8
SMU	9	6	.600	4	18	7
Tulsa	9	6	.600	4	17	8
San Jose State	8	7	.533	5	15	10
Fresno State	7	8	.500	6	16	9
Hawaii	6	9	.400	7	10	12
UTEP	6	10	.375	7 1/2	11	15
Boise State	4	12	.250	9 1/2	9	16
Nevada	3	12	.200	10	7	18

Wednesday
Fresno State 57, Utah Valley State 36
Yesterday
Louisiana Tech 81, UTEP 66
Rice 77, San Jose State 64
SMU 59, Boise State 53
Tulsa 72, Hawaii 62
Tomorrow (All times Hawaii time)
Rice at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UTEP at SMU, 10 a.m.
Nevada at Fresno State, noon
Boise State at Louisiana Tech, 2:30 p.m.
Tulsa at San Jose State, 5 p.m.