Road woes eating away at UH women
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
When all else fails on the basketball court, blame breakfast.
Rainbow Wahine Kim Willoughby and Michelle Gabriel ate breakfast at Mcdonald's on every road trip this season, until now.
Hawai'i is 0-7 away from home. With games at Boise State tonight and Texas-El Paso Saturday before next week's Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Tulsa, Willoughby and Gabriel decided to take drastic measures.
"We won't go to Mcdonald's," Willoughby said. "Just to see if that's the one thing we're doing bad."
Hawai'i has few clues otherwise, and little historical help. It has had a realistic shot at winning every away game this year and has never had road woes in the past, winning nearly 75 percent of its conference road games before this season.
The radical dropoff has had a huge impact on the bottom line. At 13-12, the 'Bows' only real chance at playing in their fourth straight postseason is to win the WAC Tournament. At 7-9 in conference, they will have their worst WAC finish (fourth or lower) and probably need at least one win this week to avoid a play-in game Tuesday in Tulsa.
"We're not playing for that," Willoughby says. "We want to win, more than anything, just to prove we are a good team. A lot of people are doubting us, saying it's kind of a given that we'll lose on the road. It's never been like that for us. We want to end the season on a good note."
Next week's seedings are in total confusion. Sixth-ranked Louisiana Tech has clinched first and Nevada last. Everything in between is up for grabs. After losing seven of its last nine, Hawai'i is a half-game out of fifth place and a full game out of fourth — and eighth, for that matter.
Road woes are rampant, with WAC home teams winning nearly 70 percent of the time. Even Boise (9-17, 6-10) and UTEP (10-16, 3-13) are 5-2 at the BSU Pavilion and Don Haskins Center, respectively.
The Broncos have won their last four home games with a tiny lineup basically made up of four guards and a center. They lead the conference in 3-pointers (5.65 per game) with leading scorer Abby Vaughan hitting nearly half those to rank among the top 25 nationally.
"They can run circles on you if you don't keep them in check," UH coach Vince Goo says. "They've got some altitude here (2,832 feet) and it gets really cold, but they play with a lot of energy here."
The Miners have had major medical problems. They lost Lithuanian Vaida Zagurskyte and Australian Kia Dowell to knee injuries. That took away 34 percent of their offense, and left just Bosnian Dragana Zoric averaging in double digits.
In contrast, Hawai'i has five players averaging around 10 points. It has not helped, particularly on the road. Goo says the balance would be good, if the scoring averages were a few points higher.
His team beat both Boise and UTEP by 18 at home and is 14-0 against them. He knows that means nothing now. So the real change this week, beyond passing on the Egg McMuffins, is in outlook.
"We're really trying to take a different attitude for this trip, have more fun," sophomore Jade Abele says. "There's not a lot we can do about where we finish, no real pressure. We just want to finish well."
OVER AND BACK: Both road games will be broadcast live on 1420 AM, beginning at 3:45 p.m. ... San Jose State's Cricket Williams is WAC Player of the Week after collecting 24 points and 16 assists in the Spartans' 88-86 overtime victory over Tulsa Sunday. Williams was one assist shy of the WAC record set by Nevada's Laura Ingham last season. ... Louisiana Tech's Tasha Crain had 10 steals against Boise State last week. Crain was one shy of tying school and WAC records. ... Tech senior Cheryl Ford broke the WAC single-season record for rebounds last week. She has 328 going into tonight's game, and is fourth nationally averaging more than 12 a game. ... Hawai'i is in the 80's in the three power rankings this week — WBCA (80), CollegeRpi.com (89) and Basketball News (87). ... A win over SMU at Ruston Saturday would make Louisiana Tech the first WAC team in 14 years to finish the conference regular season undefeated. ... Christen Roper's five blocks against Rice extended her WAC career record to 274. The UH senior broke the record against Tulsa last Thursday. ... Fresno State has won its last four — for the first time in eight years — to pull into second place. The Bulldogs have never finished as high as second in the WAC.
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