Wahine alone at the top

Hawaii leads the Pacific Division after its victory over Southern Methodist

Star-Bulletin staff

DALLAS - The University of Hawaii women's basketball team responded to coach Vince Goo's halftime challenge with a 52-point second half en route to its ninth consecutive victory.

In the battle of Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division co-leaders and WAC unbeatens, Hawaii defeated Southern Methodist, 74-68. It was Hawaii's first road game of the season.

A timid ending to the first half, which allowed SMU to gain the lead, had Goo fired up for his halftime speech.

"We were doing what we wanted to do, but we weren't going at top speed," said Goo, who celebrated his birthday yesterday.

What words of wisdom did the UH coach impart to his players?

"Let's just say that each and every one of the players were challenged by me," Goo said.

Down 27-22 at intermission, the Wahine (13-1 overall, 4-0 conference) used a 7-2 run to briefly regain the lead.

The Mustangs (11-4, 4-1), who proved to be just as good as the team UH coaches saw on tape, never folded. But neither did the Wahine.

SMU, 1-for-13 on 3-pointers in the first half, made five in the second half. The Mustangs were able to penetrate with the dribble and kick the ball back out, and the Wahine defenders were a tad late in getting to the 3-point shooters.

There were 12 lead changes and two ties before Raylene Howard, who scored 21 of her game-high 25 points in the second half, put UH ahead for good with 2:35 to play. BJ Itoman followed with a layup off a rebound - her only points of the game - and Howard's two free throws gave UH a 71-66 lead. But Claudia Brassard's bucket cut the margin to three with 1:20 left.

The Wahine misfired on their next trip down the floor, but SMU's Kasie Berend missed the front end of a 1-and-1. UH rebounded and called a timeout with 30 seconds to play and 14 seconds on the shot clock.

"We ran our sideline play with BJ lobbing to Nani (Cockett)," Goo said. "Nani's shot was blocked, but she got her own rebound, saw she was double-teamed and made a great heads-up play."

Cockett passed out to Kylie Page, who calmly sank her third 3-pointer in four attempts for the final margin.

"I'm awfully proud of our ladies. We knew it would be different and we ran into a good SMU team for our first road game," Goo said.

"This is the first time I've had a team come out and score 52 points in the second half. And when something happened that went against us (calls by the officials), they just turned and ran down the floor to play defense."