Day two of the Hawaii Invitational. When I got to the arena, San Francisco had a lead on Columbia early, and USF’s Nykia “I come in” Peace had seven points in the first eight minutes. The Lions did go up 12-11 with 11 to go in the first, but the Doñas regained the lead on the next possession to start a 13-0 run. The Doñas led by as much as 15 in the second, but the Lions put on a furious run late in the game, powered by three 3-pointers by Megan Griffith (who finished with 23), but USF held on for the 63-51 victory.
I felt a little sorry for Columbia, not so much cause they lost twice, but cause you could really tell when their road uniforms were wet. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed before if women were super sweaty, but you could totally see it in the Lions’ unis, several of which went from powder blue to royal blue — and that was just in the first half. Poor Chelsea Frazier’s jersey was practically navy.
The Amazing Disappearing Ref, reprise: I don’t know who was the third official in the first half of the Columbia-San Francisco game, but he appeared in the form of Todd Apo in the second half. I know he wasn’t working the first half cause I saw him come out of the bleachers in street clothes during the first. He also worked the Wahine game. I wonder if the refs get paid per game. And if they do, does he get paid half for working half a game? Or for the whole game?
The Wahine took on Oklahoma State for the championship. Not only did the Wahine keep it close in the first, they actually led 33-30 at the half. But the quicker Cowgirls opened the second with a 20-4 run, and it looked like it was going to be an Ok State blowout. But Bolla went with a quicker lineup inside, pulling Brittany Grice and inserting Amber Lee, who gave the ‘Bows good minutes in both halfs, and the Wahine worked their way back to tie it at 56-all on Dita Liepkalne’s jumper with 6:18 remaining. But Ok State scored on their next trip down the floor, and Saundra Cariaga threw the ball away on the following possession, and that was pretty much it. Rashidat Sadiq made something like seven free throws down the stretch as the Cowgirls whipped the Wahine, 78-64.
More disturbing than the loss, Pam Tambini went down clutching her left ankle with 5:17 remaining after getting fouled. She did not return. Dalia Solia came in for her and missed two free throws. The Wahine as a team were a dismal 6-of-14 from the line. Remember that, there’ll be a reference to it again later.
Ooh, and a fight almost broke out at the end of the game. Fighting for an offensive rebound with just seconds left, Tanya Smith tried to rip the ball out of Sadiq’s grasp and got called for the foul. They were way at the other end of the court, so I didn’t see exactly what happened, but Ok State’s Dominique Chism got all up in Tanya’s face after that and had to be restrained by her teammates. WTG Tan (hehe). Seriously though, Tan had a double-double 13 points 10 rebounds, so I was happy.
Colorful Danielles: Oklahoma State had a Danielle Green and Columbia a Danielle Browne. (Yes, I should’ve posted that yesterday, but I didn’t notice it until Danielle Green made a basket today and Ben Kia’aina called out her name.)
Delayed Reaction: In the little awards ceremony following the championship game, Ben Kia’aina announced: “This year’s Bank of Hawaii Invitational trophy goes to the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.” And no one on the Ok State bench moved. Coach Kurt Budke waved them on, and suddenly they all jumped up and ran forward, yelling loudly like they were excited.
And in tangential Wahine Basketball news, Portland State’s Kelsey Kahle scored 32 in an 85-84 overtime win over Utah Valley State today. We’ve been following Kahle since she scored 33 points against Evansville in the Paradise Classic. Her 32 points today was awesome, but not particularly surprising. What was totally amazing was that she went 17-for-21 from the free throw line. Compare that with the Wahine team total of 6-of-14 from the line tonight! Kahle’s free throw totals were single-game school records for both free throws made and attempted.
The game itself was pretty amazing too. With the game tied at 84 in overtime, a Utah Valley State player got called for an offensive foul with 2.7 seconds left and the UVSU coach got hit with a technical. PSU’s Heather Arns made 1-of-2 free throws to give the Vikings the win. I guess they figured Kahle had made enough free throws.
