For his 57th birthday, Goo's freshmen-laden team knocked Southern Methodist out of first place with a 67-50 Western Athletic Conference victory last night.

"If you can have your birthday on every day, and get a win, that's great," Goo said. "But it's not about the coaches. It's about the players. They feel really good about what they accomplished tonight."

A crowd of 463 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Rainbow Wahine cool off one of the WAC's hottest teams, and improve to 4-9 overall and 2-2 in the WAC. SMU lost for the first time in four games and fell to 7-7 and 3-2.

In victory, Hawai'i stretched its home winning streak against SMU to 8-0.

"I think our kids grew up a lot tonight," Goo said. "They matured a lot. Every time you win a ballgame against a good opponent like SMU, it has got to give you confidence."

Last night, Hawai'i's relentless man-to-man defense blanketed SMU's high-powered shooters and short-circuited their dribble penetration. SMU missed 45 of 63 shots, and went 6 of 25 from 3-point territory.

SMU entered the game as the conference leader in 3-point attempts (20.2 shots per game) and 3-pointers made (6.2 per game).

"We know they like to fire it, that's their game," said UH forward Jade Abele, who finished with a game-high 22 points. "As you can see, they still tried to stick to their game. Our guards did a great job on their guards. Everyone played great defense."

Hawai'i led by as many as 15 points in the first half, and 20 points in the second half. A 3-pointer by SMU's Katie Gross capped a 9-0 run and cut Hawai'i's lead to 38-30 in the second half, but the Mustangs would get no closer.

"I thought Hawai'i just outplayed us," SMU coach Rhonda Rompola said. "They wanted the game more than we did."

In the first half, SMU missed its first seven shots but still managed to take two brief leads.

The Mustangs led 11-10 before the Rainbow Wahine went on a 14-3 run for a 24-14 lead. Hawai'i eventually pushed the lead to 34-19 before taking a 34-21 halftime lead.

Hawai'i padded its lead in the second half by pounding the ball inside. Hawai'i outscored SMU 18-10 in the key in the final 20 minutes, and finished with a 40-18 advantage for the game. Hawai'i finished 26 of 64 from the field.

"I'm just so glad for the team," Abele said. "We did everything we wanted to do. We never gave up. It was impressive to see that when we had the lead we really pushed it and tried to extend it, rather than getting on our heels and running the clock down."

Hawai'i freshmen Dalia Solia scored 11 points, and Brittany Grice grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. SMU's Kaira White scored 14 points and Gross hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds.