Rainbow Wahine face struggling Boise State

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

•	WHAT: WAC women's basketball WH0: Hawai'i (1-0, 7-3) vs. Boise State (0-1, 7-4) WHEN/WHERE: 7 p.m. today/Stan Sheriff Center TV/RADIO: K5/1420 AM TICKETS: $7 adults, $6 senior citizens, $4 students

One involved Boise State, Hawai'i's opponent tonight at 7 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Broncos (3-8) led San Jose State for 38 minutes, but were outscored 9-0 in the final three minutes and lost, 69-64. Boise held Spartan star Crickett Williams to 30-percent shooting, but her 3-pointer pulled SJSU within a point and BSU turned the ball over in its final three possessions.

Williams finished with 23 points and 19 rebounds. Tiona Taylor added 23 points i 20 in the second half. Boise State was led by freshmen Jamie Hawkins and Lynnette Grondin, with 14 each.

In Reno, transfer Allison Curtin scored 14 points in the second half to lift Tulsa to a 58-53 victory over Nevada. Curtin, a two-time all-Big 10 selection for Illinois, came up an assist short of a triple-double. The Golden Hurricane turned the ball over 17 times in the first half and didn't take its first lead until going 42-40, with 7:59 to go.

Thursday's most surprising result came at Fresno State, where new coach Stacy Johnson-Klein guided the Bulldogs to a 77-70 victory over Rice. The Owls (2-7), who have lost their last four, were picked to finish second in the WAC, behind 17th-ranked Louisiana Tech and one ahead of Hawai'i.

Rice's only lead came three minutes into the game, at 2-0. Consecutive 3-pointers cut its deficit to five with :23 showing, but a third attempt was blocked and FSU got two free throws in the final seconds.

Boise State (3-8), picked to finish last in the WAC, has lost four in a row and is last in nearly every WAC offensive category. First-year coach Jen Warden spent the past 10 years as an assistant at Colorado, which reached the NCAA West Regional final last season.

Like the Rainbow Wahine, the Broncos do not have a player among the Top 10 in WAC scoring, but Mandy Welch, Abby Vaughan — the team's only senior — and Hawkins all average in double digits. Vaughan is tied for sixth in WAC career 3-pointers.

Hawai'i (7-3) is coming off a roller-coaster 75-57 victory over UTEP. The Rainbows opened each half with an impressive surge. The Miners got back into the game in the first half with a zone defense that slowed UH. Hawai'i solved that same zone in the second half.

With 13 points in her first game since coming over from volleyball, Kim Willoughby is now Hawai'i's leading scorer.

The victory moved UH up to No. 18 in the CollegeRPI.com power ranking. The WAC is rated 10th as a conference — two spots up from the past two seasons and six better than the 1999-2000 season.

OVER AND BACK: Louisiana Tech and Southern Methodist open their WAC seasons this afternoon in Dallas. ... Boise State lost starting center Heather Little to an injury in its sixth game. ... The Rainbow Wahine sold 1,681 tickets to Thursday's game, but only 903 showed up. ... Christen Roper had four blocks Thursday, giving her 227 in her UH career. ... Hawai'i hit 45 percent of its shots in both halves against UTEP. In its previous game, against 10th-ranked Texas Tech, UH made 22 percent. ... UH had assists on all but five of its baskets against UTEP.