Another valiant effort to file under the “;too little, too late”; category.

In a familiar story, the Hawaii women's basketball team trailed by a large margin, then clawed to within a handful of points in the final minutes before falling. This time it came against Louisiana Tech in a 79-71 decision before a crowd of 1,020 last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The post play of Lady Techster forwards Shanavia Dowdell and Adrienne Johnson—who combined for 46 points and 23 rebounds—was too much for the Rainbow Wahine (9-18, 3-11 Western Athletic Conference) to prevent their sixth straight loss.

Now UH has one chance left to win at home and end the slide on Wednesday vs. Boise State. A Wahine win would do much to ensure their chances for qualifying for the WAC tournament next month. UH stayed a game ahead of San Jose State, which also lost yesterday.

“;We're not sick of (failed comebacks) at all,”; coach Dana Takahara-Dias said. “;I was always taught by my parents to think on the positive side. Sure we coulda, woulda, shoulda, but on this given night, just the mere fact that we fought back against a clearly more physical, more athletic team than us, really shows that we have heart and we'll get there eventually. There's so many good things to build on in the future, but we're not going to count out this season yet.”;

Keisha Kanekoa led the Wahine with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. Julita Bungaite added 13 points and Katie Wilson 12 off the bench as UH's reserves outscored LaTech's 33-16. Center Rebecca Dew was also effective in a backup role with eight points and eight boards in 11 minutes.

UH actually outrebounded Tech (18-6, 9-3), the most physical team in the WAC, 41-38.

But when the Wahine focused on stopping Johnson after halftime (12 of her 20 points came in the first half), the Techsters pounded the ball inside to her frontcourt mate, Dowdell (18 of 26 points in the second period).

“;That gave Shanavia Dowdell an opportunity to have that painted area to herself,”; LaTech coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “;Once Adrienne does that (makes jumpers), it opens things up for her.”;

UH trailed by as many as 18, but turned up the fullcourt pressure to narrow the gap to 65-60 with 5:24 to play. That was as close as it got, however.

Linton leaves team

UH announced before the game that sophomore Briauna Linton transferred off the team for personal reasons, leaving the Wahine with just nine active players.

The 5-foot-10 reserve forward from Harbor City, Calif., averaged 2.8 points and 1.5 rebounds in 9.9 minutes per game, but was coming on strong in recent outings. She had her best game this week with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting at San Jose State.

“;I don't think we lose anything because all our players who are focused and committed to this team will not allow that,”; Takahara-Dias said. “;We move forward, we're just excited about the fact that the players that we have are such a great foundation to build on. And that's what we want.”;