By BART WRIGHT
It was anything but a conventional home opener for the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team Thursday night at the Civic when they hosted the University of Alaska-Anchorage in the first of three games in three consecutive days.
The Vulcans (0-2), fell to the highly regarded visitors 92-39, improving Alaska-Anchorage to 9-0 prior to a rare back-to-back meeting today at 6 p.m. They will make it three in a row Saturday when they host Alaska-Fairbanks at 2 p.m. at the Civic.
It’s rare to play the same team back-to-back and almost unheard of to play three games in three days, but when it’s over, Hawaii-Hilo coach David Kaneshiro will at least have a better idea of how to fix the parts that need attention, and from the looks of it, that might be an extensive list.
The Seawolves, seventh-ranked nationally, and featuring the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s preseason player of the year, Megan Mullings, used the first quarter of the new format — replacing the old two halves system — warming up to the task and then they got serious.
The Vulcans were able to stay in the vicinity at 30-24 after the first quarter, but they went the last 3:53 without a field goal after Lauren Hong’s basket and they followed it up by going scoreless the first 2:01 of the second quarter. The quarter ended with the Seawolves on a 17-1 run for a 47-25 halftime lead.
It was competitive early despite a rugged start when Alaska-Anchorage opened the game with a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key by senior Jenna Buchanan, which was followed by a turnover when the Vulcans were unable to get the ball down court in 10 seconds.
The Seawolves ran out to a 6-0 lead by Hawaii-Hilo battled back and took the lead on a 3-point basket by Lauren Hong for an 8-6 lead, then she tossed in another to make it 11-6, but Alaska-Anchorage regained the lead at 14-13 on a layup by Christina Davis on the way to a 20-14 lead at the end of the first quarter and the Vulcans never again led.
Alaska-Anchorage wanted more and played most of the second half in a full court zone press, backed up by a half-court zone that closed off the inside and frustrated the Vulcans offensively.
“They put a lot of pressure on you and their half-court zone is extremely aggressive, so we will have to adjust to that and we didn’t do it much tonight,” said Kaneshiro. “It’s a constant pressure that we have to be able to handle.
“We had good energy,” he said, “we’ll give it another go (tonight).”
The Vulcans were led in scoring by junior Laura Hong, who had 10, but she had all of those in the first half. The Vulcans were able score just 14 points in the second half and shot just 29 percent from the floor (13-45) in the game. They made 5-of-13 3-pointers in the first half and then went 1-for-9 in the second half.
The Seawolves were led Mullings’ 24 points, Christina Davis had 15, Jenna Buchanan 13 and Jessica Madison had 12.
“That’s our style, that’s how we play and if we come here to play, we want to get better,” said Alaska-Anchorage coach Ryan McCarthy. “I’m pretty fortunate, we have a senior-heavy team with some ladies who have been here long enough they understand what we’re doing so I can call a timeout, change what we do, send them back and they’ll be able to execute our plan.”
