Box Score
RENO, Nev. – The University of Hawai`i women's basketball team played one of its better overall games Tuesday night, beating San Jose State, 70-57 in the opening game of the 2009 WAC Tournament at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev.
The No. 8 seed Rainbow Wahine used a late first half run and carried the momentum over into the second half, beating the No. 9 seed Spartans, advancing to face No. 1 seed Fresno State on Wednesday afternoon.
UH will face Fresno State at 2:30 p.m. PT at the Lawlor Events Center, the Rainbow Wahine game will follow No. 4 Idaho versus No. 5 Utah State at noon PT. The game can be heard live on ESPN 1420 AM.
“We really wanted to win this first game and try and get on a roll,” Pat Charity said. “Overall I thought we executed well and it helped we started off by making some open shots.”
On Tuesday night, UH was led by
Keisha Kanekoa and
Dita Liepkalne, who set the pace earlier for the Rainbow Wahine. Kanekoa scored a game-high 18 points and Liepkalne scored 12 points and added five rebounds.
In the first half, the Rainbow Wahine opened up their largest lead as time expired in the half, going on a 6-0 run, capped off by a Liepkalne layup before the buzzer.
UH carried a 39-24 lead into halftime. The 39 points were the second highest the Rainbow Wahine have scored in the first half all season.
The combination of Liepkalne and Kanekoa led the way for UH. Kanekoa scored a game-high 12 points in the half, while Liepkalne had 10 points and four rebounds.
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