Thursday, Feb. 7 WAC Women’s Recaps
Hawai?i 69, Utah State 42
Box Score
HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i women's basketball team jumped in front of the Utah State Aggies from the opening tip and never trailed, leading to a 69-42 victory Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The 27-point victory is the second largest for the Rainbow Wahine this season, as they improved to 9-13 overall and 3-6 in WAC play. With the loss, Utah State fell to 6-15 overall and 2-7 in conference. UH also avenged an earlier loss to the Aggies during the first round of WAC play.
UH had four players score in double figures and were sparked by junior Tara Hittle. Hittle made her first start of her career and performed at a high level for the Rainbow Wahine. Hittle scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 25 minutes of play.
Senior Saundra Cariaga and sophomore Megan Tinnin each scored 14 points and Iwona Zagrobelna came off the bench to add 12 points.
As a team, the Rainbow Wahine shot a season-high 58.7 percent from the field, including 5 of 8 from long range. While the offense was clicking, the defense was just as strong. UH held Utah State to 26.2 percent shooting from the field and held the Aggies to a season-low 42 points.
UH opened the game with one of its more impressive opening frames. The Rainbow Wahine shot 15 of 26 from the field and held Utah State to 16 points.
Zagrobelna came off the bench in the first half and scored nine points on 4 of 4 shooting. Cariaga had eight points and Tinnin added seven in the half.
The Rainbow Wahine return to action on Saturday, February 9 when they host Nevada at 7 p.m. in the Stan Sheriff Center.
Nevada 78, San Jose State 62
SAN JOSE, Calif. ? Cherlanda Franklin led five Nevada players in double figures as the University of Nevada women’s basketball team beat San Jose State 78-62 Thursday night.
With the win, Nevada improves to 16-6 overall this season and 7-2 in the WAC. With six regular season games remaining, Nevada is now four wins away from the first 20-win season in program history. The Pack is also two wins away from recording the most overall wins under Kim Gervasoni (18) and is three wins away (19) from tying the program record for most wins in a season.
Nevada opened the game on a 6-2 run and extended its lead to 12-4 on Dellena Criner’s layup with 13:25 remaining in the first half. Nevada held San Jose State to 2-of-7 shooting from the floor over the first seven minutes of the game.
San Jose State cut Nevada’s lead to 15-10 with 10:28 left in the half before the Pack went on a 6-0 run to push its lead to 22-10 on Sabrina Keys’ jumper with nine minutes left in the half. Nevada went up by 15 on a long two by Brandi Fitzgerald to take a 28-13 lead with 7:09 remaining in the half.
Nevada, who led by as many as 17 in the first half, took a 37-23 lead at halftime. As a team Nevada shot 44.1 percent (15-of-34) from the floor in the first half and shot 80 percent (4-of-5) from the free throw line. San Jose State shot 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from the field in the first half. Cherlanda Franklin led Nevada with eight points at the half.
Nevada opened the second half going up by 19 points on a pair of free throws by Keys. Criner’s steal and breakaway layup with 14:27 left in the game put Nevada up 51-27. Fitzgerald recorded a three-point play with 5:37 remaining in the game as Nevada extended its lead to 71-47.
Bre'Anna Henry’s layup with 4:01 left in the game put Nevada up 75-49, its largest lead of the game, 26 points.
Nevada ended the game shooting 46.8 percent (29-of-62) from the floor and 86.7 percent (13-of-15) from the free throw line. San Jose State finished the game shooting 50.0 percent from the floor (24-of-48).
Franklin led all-scorers and tied her career high with 17 points. Johnna Ward added 14 for Nevada while Criner scored 11. Fitzgerald and Henry each scored 10 for the Pack. Henry also grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
Nevada will play at Hawai`i on Saturday at 9 p.m. PT. Nevada will return to Lawlor Events Center on Thursday, hosting Boise State at 6 p.m. The Pack will host Idaho on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.
New Mexico State 54, Idaho 51
Box Score
MOSCOW, Idaho ? The New Mexico State women’s basketball team overcame a sluggish performance to defeat Idaho, 54-51 Thursday evening to avoid the upset from the Vandals at the Cowan Spectrum.
The Aggies tied their season-low with only 54 points, but played solid defense to help improve their record to 17-5 and 7-2 in the WAC. Idaho falls to 2-19 and 1-8 in conference play.
Head coach Darin Spence was happy to come away with the victory and now hopes his team can come out and play loose against Boise State Saturday night.
“Well I’ll tell you what, we get a win and we’ll move on,” Spence said. “This is a tough place to play and early on we played tentative. It’s a great win for us to come out in the second half and chip away by making baskets.”
Senior forwards Sherell Neal and Anikia Jawara led the Aggies in the victory. Neal scored 17 points and had a team high six rebounds. Jawara added 14 points and tied for the game lead with four assists.
The Aggies had a sluggish first half where they only scored 20 points. It was the lowest half point total since NMSU scored 19 against Hawai’i on Feb. 8, 2007.
In the second half the Aggies shot 68.4 percent from the field and did enough defensively to pull out the victory.
Idaho had three players score in double figures with senior guard Sara Dennehy leading the way with 12 points.
Eight minutes into the game the Aggies were all tied up with Idaho at 11. NMSU then had a three and a half minute scoreless stretch before sophomore guard Hannah Spanich ended the drought with a layup off an offensive rebound to tie it again at 13 at 8:32.
New Mexico State then had another long scoreless stretch; this one was for nearly four minutes before a pair of free throws from freshman guard Madison Spence added to the scoreboard.
Luckily for NMSU, Idaho was unable to put the ball in the bucket much either and with just over four minutes left until halftime the Aggies were down by three, 18-15.
After a jumper on the fast break from freshman guard Danisha Corbett at 3:36, Idaho outscored New Mexico State 7-3 in the final minutes to take a 25-20 lead into the locker room.
The Aggies were just 8-of-24 from the field in opening half for just 33.3 percent and they had nine turnovers. Idaho only shot 37.9 percent in the opening frame.
In the first four minutes of the second half the Aggies had scored half of the number of points they had in the first 20 minutes of the game. Neal had five of the first 10 points to open the second half and five minutes in, NMSU was only down 33-31.
Spence gave NMSU its first lead since inside the first five minutes of the game on her 12-foot jumper in the lane on the fast break. Her bucket was part of an 8-0 Aggie run that was capped off by a 3-pointer from Spanich at 10:38, giving NMSU a 39-34 lead.
Idaho tied the game back up at 39 with 8:19 to go before NMSU had a five-point possession. It all started when senior guard Monique Bribiescas hit a 3-pointer from the corner and while the ball was going down Idaho’s Yinka Olorunnife was called for a foul on Neal. The Aggies got the ball right back under their bucket and Bribiescas found Jawara for the basket that put New Mexico State up 44-39.
With 5:08 to play Idaho’s Katie Madison tied the game up for the sixth time with a pair of free throws.
New Mexico State and the Vandals traded buckets for the next three minutes, but NMSU was able to gain a three point lead. At 1:43 out of an inbounds play, Olorunnife was wide open under the hoop for a bucket to cut NMSU’s lead down to one.
Idaho then got a stop, but Dennehy’s baseline 20-foot jumper would not fall and Jawara pulled down the rebound. NMSU brought the ball up the court and called a timeout with 38.8 seconds to go. After the timeout Dennehy stole the ball from Neal and with 15.8 seconds left Idaho crossed half court to call a timeout of its own.
Carli Bakondy had an open 15-foot jumper on the baseline to win it for Idaho, but the shot would not fall and Spence collected the rebound with 3.9 seconds left. She then made both of her free throws to seal the victory.
The Aggies now travel down to Boise, Idaho to take on the Boise State Broncos Saturday, Feb. 9 at 7:00 p.m. MDT in the Taco Bell Arena. Fans can listen to the game on KSNM-AM 570 with Jenean Ford calling the action.
Boise State 70, Louisiana Tech 54
BOISE, Idaho (2/7/08) - Jessica Thompson scored a team high 20 points to lead Boise State past Louisiana Tech 70-54 Thursday night at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. For the second game in a row it was not pretty but to the Broncos credit they hung in there and found a way to win.
The 16-point victory completes their first ever season sweep of the Lady Techsters in seven years and keeps Boise State’s title hopes alive at 8-2 in Western Athletic Conference action, a game back of Fresno State at 8-1.
The first half had moments where you thought the Broncos were still in Moscow playing the Vandals as they struggled to hit their shots like they did in last Saturday’s game. Boise State had trouble finding any since of rhythm against the athletic Lady Techsters in the opening 20-minutes.
To Louisiana Tech’s credit they used their athletic advantage to their favor dominating the boards 28 to 19 in the period as they kept the contest close. Boise State battled from the start but things did not fall their way as they seemed a step slow early. However, they managed to maintain the lead until the final 26 seconds of the half when Louisiana Tech’s Shordy Mulford hit a running layup to give the Lady Techsters a one point, 27-26, halftime advantage.
After going into the break down one, the Broncos came out inspired in the second half running off a 7-0 run to start the period to take the lead for good. During the run Boise State hit six straight free throws, two from a technical foul called on Louisiana Tech’s head coach Chris Long.
Unfortunately, the Lady Techsters came right back like they did in the first half tying the game at 39 with 15:21 to play. But they failed to recapture the lead. Boise State then slowly began to pull away from Louisiana Tech with a 17-4 run over the next eight minutes. The run was sparked by a Jamia Malone layup and a Jackie Lee 3-pointer to take a 44-39 advantage with 14:16 showing on the clock.
Once the Broncos stretched the lead to double digits, 53-43, by the 9:49 mark of the period the Lady Techsters would not get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way. The largest lead of the game was the final 16-point margin, 70-54, at the buzzer.
Boise State made a dramatic improvement in the second half on the boards. After trailing by nine at the half, 28-19, the Broncos crashed the boards winning the second by a 26-16 margin and 45-44 in the game. Boise State had 24 offensive boards in the game against the WAC’s top rebounding team resulting in a 17-11 edge in second chance points. The Broncos also took advantage of 21 Lady Techster turnovers out scoring the visitors 26-12 in points off turnovers, Boise State committed 13 turnovers.
The Broncos ended the contest shooting 32.4 percent (24-74) from the court, a solid 36 percent (9-25) from the 3-point arc, and 81.3 percent (13-16) from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech countered with 33.9 percent (20-59) shooting from the hardwood, 10 percent (1-10) from long distance, and matched Boise State’s 81.3 percent (13-16) from the charity stripe.
Jessica Thompson led the Broncos with a team high 20 points to go with seven rebounds, six assists, and five steals. Jackie Lee was the second of three Boise State players in double figures with 13 points while adding three boards, and three assists. Jamia Malone finished the game with 11 points hitting three-of-seven from the arc in addition to a pair of rebounds, one assist, and three steals. Tasha Harris was held below 10 points for the first time in 25 games as she finished with nine points, a team high eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Jenna Galassi added six points followed by Ja'Lara Walker with five, Sierra Moeller’s four, and Melissa Rima’s two. Both Rima and Moeller grabbed five boards apiece.
JoKierra Sneed led Louisiana Tech with a double-double on 19 points and 15 rebounds. No one else recorded double figure points for the Lady Techsters as Shanavia Dowdell, Tarkeisha Wysinger, and Adrienne Johnson all added eight points each, followed by seven from Nastassja Levingston. Dowdell and
Wysinger recorded seven rebounds apiece while Johnson chipped in with six.
The win was the eighth in a row for Boise State as they improve to 16-6 overall and 8-2 in WAC action. They also increased their home win streak to 12 games. Louisiana Tech falls to 10-12 overall and 4-5 in conference play with the loss, virtually eliminating them from title contention which would snap what is believed to be a 16-year streak of league titles. Up next for the Broncos is another key WAC meeting on Saturday when New Mexico State comes to town for a 7:05 p.m. (Mountain) tip in Taco Bell Arena. The Aggies, who are the last team to defeat Boise State this year, were at Idaho Thursday night. New Mexico State has never won in Boise going 0-6 in their previous trips dating back to the Big West Conference days of the late 90’s.