By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
TULSA, Okla. — Squeezing two halves of basketball into 20 minutes has become a remarkable — if reckless — habit of this season’s University of Hawai‘i Wahine. Yesterday, time finally ran out on them.
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| TCU’s Tricia Payne was nearly unstoppable as she beat the double team of Hawai‘i’s Crystal Lee (23) and Dainora Puida to score two of her 26 points.
Associated Press |
Texas Christian won its first — and last — Williams Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship, 66-58 over the Wahine, who were making their first final appearance since winning the Big West in 1994. The Horned Frogs leave for Conference USA next season.
A mid-day crowd of 1,396 at Reynolds Center watched Tricia Payne put the hurt on Hawai‘i, scoring 26 points and blunting every charge.
There were many. There had to be after a nightmarish Hawai‘i first half instigated by TCU’s defense.
The Wahine, who scored 99 points in an overtime victory over Southern Methodist 20 hours earlier, staggered through an 18-point first half. They shot 5-for-33 from the field (15 percent) and couldn’t draw a foul despite relentlessly powering inside.
"Of those 33 shots, not one was bad, they were all good shots," UH coach Vince Goo said.
"That’s the way the game goes sometimes. Offensively, you need to be in rhythm, have five people in sync. We may have been a lit-tle tired.
"Then again, if you play defense the way we did in the second half, you’ve still got a shot at the game. We made a very courageous comeback."
Payne, the tournament MVP, popped in nine consecutive points to create the Frogs’ cushion at 30-13. Kylie Galloway’s free throws ended Hawai‘i’s silence. Crystal Lee’s 3-pointer — her final score of the game — was the Wahine’s only basket in the final 7:28. At halftime, TCU was up, 34-18.
"I hope the NCAA selection committee didn’t turn the game off," said Goo, whose 23-7 team lives on the bubble as the 32 at-large teams are announced today.
The Wahine, for the third time in as many tries last week, turned their game on in the second half. They shot 52 percent and outscored TCU 40-32 in an all-out assault reminiscent of so many games this season.
"We would have liked for them to go away for a little bit," said TCU coach Jeff Mittie, whose team improved to 24-7. "They just wouldn’t quit and Galloway was fantastic in the second half. She gave us fits."
Hawai‘i’s first comeback steps were halting, and inspired by all-tournament selections Galloway and Dainora Puida. They combined for 15 points to cut the deficit to 48-38 midway through the second half.
TCU, which starts all upperclassmen, answered with a 9-0 surge to take its largest lead at 57-38. Four Frogs scored, led by Payne.
The Wahine made one last run, fueled on fumes. Puida started it and defense dominated it. Hawai‘i held TCU scoreless for more than four minutes, closing to 57-51 with 3:05 showing.
"That shows two things," Goo said. "One, TCU has the talent to go up 19 on us. And two, the Hawai‘i team has a lot of heart, to be down 19 and cut it to five."
That would come a minute later as Galloway gathered an offensive rebound, raced to the corner and buried a 3-pointer. But the Frogs hit 7-of-8 free throws in the final minutes, and grabbed enough of their own rebounds to make even the scoreless possessions meaningful.
Galloway finished with 21 points and eight assists, making her responsible for two-thirds of her team’s points.
"We’ve always been a second-half team," Galloway said. "The first half today was pretty bad. We realized we’re a better team than that. You don’t want to play your last game. You want to win by all means, but if you can’t, you want to go down fighting. It never crossed my mind that we were down and out.
"You have to give TCU credit for a great season. They deserve to be champs."
Puida (12 points and 12 rebounds) put together her third double-double of the tournament and ninth of her senior season, despite sitting most of the first half with foul trouble. She also set a tournament record with 38 rebounds — nine more than the previous mark.
Mittie counted the final agonizing seconds down, then became the Wahine’s biggest backer.
"I felt coming in that the WAC deserved two teams (in the NCAA Tournament) if these two teams got to the championship," he said. "I feel Hawai‘i deserves to be in there. They’ve got a great team — 23 is a lot of wins and they’ve beat some good teams. They are certainly deserving of a bid."
OVER AND BACK: Texas Christian began its women’s Division I program in the 1982-83 school year. This will be the first national postseason tournament it has played in. . . . The final was between the conference’s top two seeds. Hawai‘i came into it with a power rating of 52 in one index and 51 in another. TCU was 45 and 41.
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