A Foxy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving used to mean doing my show at KTUH and STAN stopping by bearing sugarless (not sugarfree) pumpkin cheesecake. Today, STAN stopped by with some sugared pumpkin cheesecake and we zipped off to watch the Marist women’s basketball team outfox Utah at the Oahu Classic.

So it’s actually quite common for DIII or NAIA teams to come down around this time of year and have basketball tournaments at public schools or Kilauea District Park. But the Oahu Classic actually has DI teams, and good DI teams at that. I think they’re the teams that wanted to come out for the Wahine Classic but the ‘Bows already had seven committed. STAN pointed out that the field at the Oahu Classic was stronger than the Wahine Classic field.

Utah led for much of the game, and were up by as much as 11 at one point. But those sly Red Foxes crept back into the game late with some sweet post play down low from Meg Dahlman and Rachele Fitz. Fitz seriously gave Utah fits, going for 26 points and 10 rebounds, and hitting the game tying baseline jumper with seconds to go in regulation.

Marist led for most of the overtime period, and were up by two with under a minute remaining. The Utes attempted a shot, missed, but controlled the rebound with under 20 seconds left. The shot clock turned off, which usually happens when there’s less than 30 seconds remaining, but apparently one of the refs doesn’t know this and he blew his whistle, stopping play. The other refs let him know he’d stopped play for no reason, and Utah inbounded from the sideline in front of their bench. But Marist’s Nikki Flores snuck in and stole the inbound pass, forcing the Utes to foul her. She nailed both foul shots to seal the 70-66 win for Marist.

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend of course means Wahine Classic. Wonder if the action can match up to the excitement of Marist-Utah? At least the seats will be more comfortable.

More Hi Invite Reflections

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.

Hi Invite Musings

Final Wahine Basketball tournament of the season this weekend, and Columbia, San Francisco and Oklahoma State are all in town for the Hawaii Invitational. I personally was more excited about the visiting assistant coaches than the teams themselves. A couple days ago, STAN said, “guess who’s an assistant for USF? Abby Conklin!” (Those of you who are also Lady Vols at heart will remember her as an outstanding forward from the days of Chamique Holdsclaw.) I oohed and laughed and said, “I thought you were going to say ‘Miranda Serna’,” who has been down with five different teams in the past. “Wonder what she’s up to now?” Said STAN: “She’s an assistant at Oklahoma State!” I laughed, thinking he was joking, but he was serious! So Miranda has come down as a player with New Mexico and Houston, and as an assistant coach with Long Beach State, Fresno State (twice), Louisiana Tech and now Oklahoma State.

I made it down to the first game with about eight minutes remaining in the first. Ok State already had a big lead on Columbia, and Miranda Serna’s Cowgirls quite literally ran away from the Lions, pushing the tempo and often catching the Lions a tad slow in transition. In the second half in particular, 6-3 Maria Cordero showed she could run the floor, finishing with 21 points, as the Cowgirls tamed the Lions 86-42.

The most amusing play of the game came late in the first half. Cowgirl Andrea Riley threw up a high-arcing but quite obviously short 3-point attempt from the left corner that wedged itself snugly between the rim and the backboard. Ok State’s 6-5 Christian Hood leaped up and batted at the ball, and it moved an inch or two but wouldn’t come loose. Then it was Columbia’s turn, as 6-3 Chelsea Frazier jumped up and whacked the ball, which again moved a few inches but remained stuck. Finally, Hood jumped up and slapped the ball again, which slowly came loose and trickled across the rim before falling off the other side.

The nightcap featured the Wahine hosting Abby Conklin’s Dons. Na Wahine were an offensive machine in the first, with Taylor, Tambini and Tanya combining for 30 points, and Hawaii took a 44-22 lead into the locker room. The best part of it all was they were getting it done with layups instead of those, no-pass-let-me-just-pull-up-and-shoot-over-someone shots that Pam Tambini and Janevia Taylor sometimes fall into.

The offense slowed in the second half, but four Wahine still finished in double digits (Taylor and Tambini with 15 each, Tanya Smith and Saundra Cariaga with 10 apiece) as the Wahine downed the Dons, 70-49. The ‘Bows got good second-half minutes from freshman Megan Tinnin, who’s seen limited playing time so far this season. With all the seniors on this year’s team, it was good to see her gaining some game experience.

One bad thing — a few times tonight the Wahine were guilty of running away from the ball. The passer threw behind the cutter at least three times tonight, and it was starters and top subs who stumbled into these mishaps.

Oh, Brittany Grice did not suit up for tonight’s game. I asked STAN what happened to her, and he said she’s been playing with leg injuries all season. I took one glance at the spike heels she was wearing and thought, yeah no wonder she has bad legs.

Road Trip!

Yesterday, STAN and I carried on a great folkie tradition and went on a grand road trip. Well, we didn’t exactly drive cross country, but we did go to the other side of the island.

Our first stop was Kailua and Kalaheo high’s gym for some NAIA women’s basketball. Unfortunately, STAN kept the $1 program, so I don’t know the name of the tournament or the teams in it. I just know that we saw the (Liz?) Olivet Nazarene Lady Tigers take on the Montana East-West State Northern Tech Christian Something or other Skylights. The Lights lost their best player to injury at the beginning of the year, then got in a big bus accident and lost two more players for the season after a loss to Portland State, so they suited up just eight players. Olivet on the other hand had 15 players, all of who played. Seriously. One minute into the game, STAN and I noticed five players come off the ONU bench and prepare to enter the game. We were excited — platoon! A minute later, the next set of five players came off the bench to enter the game. I was like, is the coach going to sub in the next platoon every minute? And he did!

The second set, waiting to enter the game.

The switch

Olivet jumped out to a double figure lead in the first half thanks to some stupendous 3-point shooting, leading STAN and I to ponder potential headlines for the “recap.” We both decided we really liked “Tigers shoot the Lights out.” Behind its crazy long-range bombing, ONU scored 59 (!) points in the first half. That was more than either the Penn or Hawaii men scored in the entire game on Thursday night!

The second half was a completely different story. Montana East-West State Northern Tech Christian Something or Other started successfully breaking Olivet’s press and knocking down easy layups, and the Lady Tigers 3-pointers suddenly weren’t going down. Suddenly, the Tigers’ double figure lead became a 7-point deficit. The Tigers would get close again though, and with Olivet down by two with some 35 seconds to go, a Skylights player missed two free throws and Olivet’s Katie (?) Mullin knocked down a 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 1-point advantage. The Lights got the ball back, and their one tall player who towered over all the shorter Tigers made a sweet post move inside and dropped a little baby hook in with seconds to go. Olivet would get one more chance to inbound from half court with 1.6 seconds left, but the Tigers got called for a 5-second violation and turned the ball over. So Montana East-West State Northern Tech Christian Something or Other won — get this — 109-108!

Yes, that is the correct score.

STAN and I would like to give major props to the PA announcer at Kalaheo for doing an outstanding job. We joked that he had to work extra hard since he had to announce five new players for Olivet every minute and since both sides were scoring so much.

Oh, and of course, nothing says you’re at a public high school like toilet paper that comes in little squares in the restroom. On the whole though, Kalaheo’s restrooms were pretty clean. I’ve encountered some rather questionable restrooms on my small college basketball travels with STAN, so I highly appreciated Kalaheo’s clean toilets. (Kamehameha still had the best though! ILH!)

After the NAIA game, our road trip really began, heading out to Laie to catch the Our God Is Better Than Your God Classic — i.e., the Penn Quakers taking on the BYUH Fighting Mormons. And of course, no good road trip would be without a wrong turn followed by a few moments of confusion followed by an illegal U-ie. And then a few really, really slow-moving vehicles.

But if they drive faster, we’ll end up with a Christmas tree in our windshield.

Eventually we were headed in the right direction with nothing but clear road ahead, and we were rewarded with a gorgeous drive past misty mountains and white-capped waves. That side of the island really is so much more beautiful. Course, STAN wasn’t enjoying it cause he was worried bout getting lost and being late for the game. He loves them Mormons.

Pretty … but where are we?

We got to BYUH in about half an hour. But STAN’s momentary excitement of having found the place quickly dissipated when we saw all the intersecting roads and unmarked buildings. “How do we get over there?” STAN asked. Suddenly, a chicken crowed loudly, as if in response. We both cracked up, and STAN skipped ahead on his CD to Cluck Old Hen. Ba-gawk!

When we finally got inside the gym, the first thing I wanted to find was a restroom (long drive after all). The men’s restroom was right by the entrance, with a nice big sign over the tunnel entrance announcing there was a men’s room there. The women’s room on the other hand was harder to find. I finally found it outside the opposite tunnel from the entrance, and slipped through a propped open double door to the restroom. And what did I find in there? Toilet paper that came in little squares!

After I was through, I decided to take a sip from the water fountain before heading back out to the court. As I did so, some guy from inside came over and pulled shut the door I had slipped out through. I went back to the door and discovered that there were no handles on this side of the door. I was suddenly trapped in limbo, outside the main part of the arena, but still inside the actual building. Luckily, I saw someone leave the court through a side tunnel and then appear in my limbo, and took her path in reverse to end up back on the court.

Canon Activities Center, home of the Stormin’ Mormons

The Quakers-Mormons game was a pretty good one as well — BYUH actually had a second-half lead on the DI Quakers (who beat the ‘Bows the other night). Not that I could enjoy it — one of the BYUH radio guys had a small human there who was running around me, and I was worried he’d trip on my phone chord and rip it out of my computer, or worse, knock my computer off the bleachers. I was already trying to calculate how much to charge its owner to replace my computer and all its programs, music and memories.

Actually, STAN and I both noticed that there were quite a few small humans at the game. Those Mormons have been working overtime at being fruitful.

Penn eventually came back and won like a good DI team should, and we jetted out of there. STAN and I both agreed the first game of the day was much more interesting. And the ride back from Laie in the dark (and the smoke) was not as much fun as the ride out there. Still, it was a fun folkie, sporty kinda day.

Demonic matchup

STAN is getting me hooked on DIII basketball. Sure, it’s not exactly like watching Tennessee battle Duke, but the level of play is still pretty high, and there’s something refreshing about watching athletes who are playing for their love of the sport (DIII does not offer athletic scholarships). Today I donned my best black dress and accompanied STAN to Kamehameha to watch Cal Lutheran battle nationally-ranked Mr. George Fox (I’ve got better things planned ?). I know, I was supposed to be rooting for underdog Cal Lutheran, with their three players from Hawaii, including our favorite pseudo newsroom baller and Maryknoll alumna. But when George Fox got into rhythm, they were pretty exciting to watch. Not to mention that they were stacked with cuties.

So, since I went with STAN to DIII ball and since I’d told someone I’d go to their party thing last night, I missed a whole day *gasp* of the Wahine Classic. Which is too bad, cause DePaul is my new favorite team. I really like the “we’re on defense, slap the ground” thing they do. Not to mention I’m in love with Jenna Rubino. As Sau would say, Jenna Rubino is teh hotness. She struggled a little yesterday against Eastern Michigan, but I could tell she was a much better ballplayer than that. Sure enough, when I got home after DIII ball today, I snuck a quick peek online to catch the in-progress score of the DePaul-Texas A&M game, and noticed Jenna Rubino had 14 points at the half. Grrr.

STAN really likes DePaul cause the team chaplain (used to?) sit on the bench with the team (I didn’t notice him on Friday). Which I was thinking about tonight after STAN texted me that Wisconsin would match up with DePaul tomorrow for the Wahine Classic title. He included a line wondering if the Badgers would exorcise the Demons, and then I thought it very strange that a school whose team chaplain sits on the bench with the team would be nicknamed the Blue DEMONS. But maybe it makes sense to them.

DII IVeva!

STAN and I caught the final day of the Hoop ‘n’ Surf today — he was itching to see some Division II basketball, even though he still has yet to finish watching the D-II championship game I taped for him last March. Today’s Hoop ‘n’ Surf was pretty cool though, and we saw a really great basketball game — the Harding Lady Bison vs. the Southern Illinois – Edwardsville Cougars.

Harding went up 13 on SIUE early, but SIUE battled back and tied it at the half. The Cougars (or “Small-Lukies” as Lori called them, or “Little Lukes” as STAN christened them) then showed some strong post moves inside in the second half and cashed in on a few fast breaks and key 3-pointers, before holding on for the 69-61 victory.

Harding’s Kinsey Tucker was a funny one — very vocal. At one point during the first half, while she was right in front of us, she threw the ball out of bounds and exclaimed loudly, “oh, crap!” Then in the second half STAN thought she yelled “shit!” while missing a layup. Potty mouth.

I also remarked to STAN that SIUE’s Lindy Carey deserves a serious massage after that game. Not only did she lead the Little Lukes with 21 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out, but she also got beat up pretty badly, taking several hard falls on both ends of the court. But the funniest play came in the first half, when one of her teammates threw her a pass that bounced off her head and deflected to teammate Amber Wisdom. What a brilliant touch pass! That’s really using your head!

While we were watching the Harding-SIUE game, the Arkansas Tech team, who was playing the next game, came and sat around us. They’re the Golden Suns, even though their unis were very green. At one point I almost leaned back in the bleachers, but sat up straight when I realized a Tech player was sitting right behind me. She proceeded to remind me she was sitting there by brushing against my butt several times while putting on her shoes. I didn’t mind.

There also was a woman in the audience with some sort of light-up Christmas pin. I assume it was a Christmas pin, although I couldn’t really see what it was. All I saw was little red lights dancing on her chest. I thought her shirt was on fire. It kind of looked like she had dropped the lit tip of her cigarette on her shirt and now the flame was dancing on her chest. I wanted to run over and bat at her chest a few times, help her put out the fire. “Stop, drop and roll! Stop, drop and roll!”

Then I went to watch the Rainbow men play in the Rainbow Classic. Ho-hum. Nowhere near as fun as Harding-SIUE. Not to mention, I didn’t get goosed and there were no women whose chests were on fire.

STAN found the online diary of players from Wisconsin-Superior (another team in the Hoop’n'Surf, the D-III/NAIA portion). It’s really cute to check out what these midwestern athletes think about Hawaii. Be sure to check out Shannon Johannes’s story about flowers behind ears