Hawai'i working to escape scoring slump
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
It is the second half of the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball season. Hawai'i, do you know where your offense is?
Tomorrow, 10th-ranked Louisiana Tech, the WAC's stingiest team, comes to the Stan Sheriff Center. The Techsters (17-2) have won their last 15, including all nine WAC games.
The Rainbow Wahine (11-7) have lost their last two and fallen into WAC gridlock. At 5-4, UH is one of six teams with four or five losses, along with Southern Methodist, which is Saturday's opponent.
"This is the best balance I've seen," said UH coach Vince Goo, who is hardly enjoying parity after living in the WAC's upper echelon nearly his entire career. "The few new coaches are getting old quick."
While the UH defense is still among the nation's best, along with Louisiana Tech's, the Rainbow Wahine are averaging a WAC-worst 57 points on offense. Much of that futility has come on the road, where they are 0-4 and barely averaging 50 points.
Hawai'i accomplished most of its goals last week on the road and still lost to Rice and Tulsa i by a total of seven points. The Rainbows simply couldn't put the ball in the basket.
Goo pointed to seven missed free throws as the major cause of the Rice loss. Hawai'i rallied from a 16-point deficit against Tulsa, only to fall in the final minute. His response to that 45-42 defeat was simple.
"We played eight people," Goo said. "I told the players if all eight of you get one more basket we could have won by 10 or 15 points."
In the past two weeks, Louisiana Tech is the only WAC team to win a road game.
It has won all but one conference game since joining the WAC last year and is 9-0 against Hawai'i.
The Techsters are dramatically different than the team that overcame the Rainbows in the WAC Tournament championship 10 months ago. They lost three starters and a legendary coach when Leon Barmore retired.
Kurt Budke, Barmore's associate coach the past two seasons, has taken over on the bench. Cheryl Ford, daughter of NBA star Karl Malone, has taken over on the court.
Ford is averaging 15 points and 15 rebounds in the WAC, where she has double-doubles in all nine games.
She is fourth in the country in rebounding and has recycled many of those into baskets, helping the Techsters to a WAC-best 76-plus points a game.
Hawai'i is giving up less than 52 points. Something has to give tomorrow.
Every time the teams have played that "something" has been the Rainbows, who have lost their last 12 games against ranked teams.
OVER AND BACK: The Rainbow Wahine went on the road last week with a 4-0 record in games decided by five points or less. They came home 4-2. ... Hawai'i has not lost three consecutive games in more than four years. ... The 66 points Boise State got against Louisiana Tech last week were the most for a WAC team against the Techsters. Unfortunately for Boise, Tech scored 102. ... The Rainbow Wahine tumbled from the high 20s to the mid-50s in this week's three power ratings. Louisiana Tech is 20 and SMU, at 98, is the only other WAC team in double digits. ... Tulsa's Allison Curtin, who scored 25 of Tulsa's 45 points against UH Saturday, was named the WAC Player of the Week for the third time. The senior transfer, who was a two-time all-Big 10 selection for Illinois, averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds last week. She also became Tulsa's single-season scoring leader with 459 points in 20 games.
