Hawai'i women win first of year

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

UH's Jade Abele drives on Syracuse's Lauren Kohn. Abele scored 27 points. Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i's Dalia Solia, right, plays keepaway against Syracuse's Tierra Jackson. Solia, a freshman from Kaimuki High, scored 10 points.

Hawai'i's Amy Sanders drives on Tierra Jackson, left, and April Jean of Syracuse.

Hawai'i beat Syracuse, 72-63, for its first win of the season, in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine play No. 21 Arizona today in the fifth-place game at 1:10 p.m.

Hawai'i coach Vince Goo said that after his team blew a 14-point lead in a 79-76 overtime loss to Hartford Friday night, the team got together early yesterday morning to watch the game tape.

"(Hartford) played with a lot of spirit in the second half, and I thought they outplayed us," Goo said. "We want our players to know that when you play with spirit and fire, that good things should happen, and I think we learned from that game last night and tried to play with that today."

The Rainbow Wahine outscored the Orangewomen 13-2 to start the game. They led by as much as 14 points with nine minutes remaining in the first, and went into halftime with a 36-28 lead.

The Rainbow Wahine built their lead to as much as 16 points with about eight minutes to play.

Syracuse, using a full-court press that initially gave Hawai'i some trouble, then went on a 16-7 run to get within 67-61 with 1:55 remaining.

"Being down and realizing we weren't going to get back in the game just playing straight up half court, we thought we would gamble a little bit and try to force the tempo and maybe force some mistakes," Syracuse coach Keith Cieplicki said.

Hawai'i junior Jade Abele, who scored a career-high 27 points, made a 3-pointer and 2 of 4 free throws to put the Rainbows out of reach.

"We really wanted it today, we didn't want to lose again," Abele said. "We put in a lot of effort from the start and made sure we had that lead. And in the second half when they started coming back, it was like, 'Come on, let's go. Not again!' "

Senior wing April Atuaia added 13 points and freshman wing Dalia Solia contributed 10 for UH.

"I didn't really get to play (Friday), and I really wanted to play today, so I just came out and hustled," Solia said. "If you don't play one game, you really want to get in. When you get the chance to play, you have to give it your all."

Syracuse was led by senior guard Julie McBride, who scored 24 points. Freshman guard Lauren Kohn added 13 points.

Hawai'i made 23 of 32 free throws, and Syracuse made 3 of 3.

"(Friday's) game we gave up three free throws the first half and 17 the second half. So something we wanted to do today was not get sloppy on defense, and not foul the people penetrating on the dribble," Goo said.

"We wanted to go to the free-throw line, so we wanted to play aggressive offense and go to the basket."

Freshman wing Pam Tambini grabbed 11 rebounds as Hawai'i outrebounded Syracuse, 45-30, including an 16-8 advantage on the offensive boards.

"I thought they had good energy today, coming off a tough loss," Cieplicki said. "You can see that every game they are getting better, and hopefully we can start doing the same thing."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.