On the road again
So the basketball season is a few weeks old, and I’ve been a bit remiss about the blogging thing. I really did mean to write something about the Wahine Classic, but with only three games, there were few funny moments to choose from for my annual satirical All-Wahine Classic Awards.
The big story from the Wahine Classic was a heartbreaking one. Former Punahou standout and Cal commit Shawna Kuehu crumpled driving to the basket on the first play of overtime against East Tennessee State and was lost for the season with a torn ACL. The naturally-gifted Kuehu was still shaking off the rust after missing a year of basketball, but showed tremendous promise. Unfortunately, her comeback was cut short by the dreadedest of dreaded injuries in women’s basketball.
But, that’s the way the knee twists some times, and there’s still a lot of basketball to be played, so STAN and I hit the road to see how Na Wahine would perform in their first games sans Shawna. That’s right, I said we hit the road. I.e., road trip! We’ve made the trek out to Laie for basketball before, but this is the first time in my memory that I can recall going to a true road game for Na Wahine, outside of watching Hawaii play UNLV at the WAC Tournament.
Friday we made the long drive up to Laie, and boy, was it long. I didn’t remember it being so long a few years ago, but with traffic on that skinny two-lane road the drive was almost painful. Luckily, we made it to the Canon Activities Center just in time for tipoff of the Hawaii-BYUH game.
As expected, Na Wahine easily handled the smaller Division II school, 76-46. The normally poor-rebounding Wahine outboarded BYUH, whose tallest player that played stands just 6-0, 44-24, and Wahine center Katie Wilson ran roughshod over the smaller Seasiders, going for 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting in just 16 minutes of action. The sharpshooting Wahine also hit 55.1 percent of their shots, including 6-of-13 from 3-point territory.
After the UH-BYUH game, STAN and I headed out to Turtle Bay for dinner at Ola. After taking an inadvertent tour of the Turtle Bay lobby, we found our way to the resort’s outdoor restaurant. We had the best kalua pork nachos ever there.
I had salmon as my main course, which was okay, not great. STAN had what he called the “best steak ever.” I should’ve had the steak.
We also had a friend join us for dinner.
I dropped a bit of salmon on the ground for STAN’s little friend (lord knows, I didn’t want to eat any more of it). Apparently though, neither did the cat, as he did not return.
On our accidental tour of the resort, we saw a few BYU players at the buffet at Turtle Bay. “Maybe they’ll eat too much and be unable to play tomorrow,” I told STAN. I would be proven wrong.
Now, Hawaii beat San Francisco by 10 points, and BYU topped the Dons by 12, so I thought maybe Na Wahine would be able to give the Cougs a game. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. BYU came out in a nasty full-court press and their prayers were answered on offense as the Cougars raced out to a 31-2 lead to put the game away in the first few minutes. Battling a team that has some actual size, ‘Bows’ bigs Rebecca Dew, Allie Patterson and Katie Wilson all picked up 2 fouls apiece by the 11:45 mark in the first. Hawaii subbed in some smalls and and were able to not turn the ball over in the backcourt later in the half, but offensively they could not get anything going. Na Wahine was able to play within 5 of the Cougs in the second half, but the damage had been done and BYU rolled to an 81-44 win.
The nightcap (well, afternooncap, I suppose) featured San Francisco, which actually is a DI school, versus BYUH, and would make our long trip to the other side of the island well worth it. The Seasiders forgot they were a DII school and shot 57.1 percent to pull off the upset over the hapless Dons. Mahina Gago led the way for the Laie ladies with 23 points and 9 rebounds. Definitely not a trip to remember for USF.
Funny moment: before the USF-BYUH game, referee Donovan Lewis said to me: “I want you to take care of the crowd.” Here’s are some shots of the rowdy crowd that I was in charge of:
