The weather in Honolulu did not disappoint. The Stanford women did, falling to North Carolina 54-70 in the first game of the Hawaii tournament.
The sun shone, the trade winds blew, the temperature was 81 degrees. But in the University of Hawaii arena North Carolina made twelve 3-point shots, yielding 36 points. Stanford made five 3-point shots, yielding 15 points. This 21-point difference was the primary reason for the variance in the final score.
The game plan may have been to control the inside scoring of the Tar Heels’ big three of Mayunga, McDaniel and Gray. That plan was reasonably successful, but in the process North Carolina was left open for long-distance shooting and reaped a rich harvest. McDaniel made 3 threes, Coleman made 4, Cherry made 2, Washington made 2 and Rountree made 1. Meanwhile, on the Stanford side Karlie made 3, Lili made 1 and Briana made 1.
In addition to the discrepancy in 3-pointers, Stanford made 30.9% of its field goal attempts, including only 20% in the first half. Stanford made 15 free throws to North Carolina’s 6, but free throws only count for one point and this could not offset the dozen 3-pointers by the Tar Heels.
Neither team shot well in the first half and the halftime score was 18-24. North Carolina found the basket in the second half and outscored the Cardinal 46-36 in that period.
Lili was back from her illness in New Mexico and started, but lacked her usual oomph in the first half. She seemed more of her old self in the second half and ended with 15 points. Karlie was the second high scorer with 9 points. Kaylee and Amber had 6 points apiece and Briana, off the bench, scored 7 points. Brittany made 3 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and a steal in 8 minutes. All of her points were from free throws.
Sylvia Hatchell kept her starters in the game until there was less than a minute to play even though Tara had cleared the bench earlier. The end of the Stanford bench did better against the Tar Heel starters than Stanford’s regulars did. Erica Payne made 4 points in 4 minutes and got a steal.
Taylor Greenfield played 13 minutes and ended with no points and 3 rebounds. Erica McCall made 2 points and had 5 rebounds. Kailee played 16 minutes and had no points and 1 rebound. Kaylee again led in rebounds with 9 and had 6 points and 5 turnovers.
Briana, Brittany and Erica did well in their few minutes on the floor, combining for 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
The assist to turnover ratio was another Stanford weakness. The Cardinal had 6 assists to 13 turnovers, while the Tar Heels had 16 assists and 17 turnovers. The third major Stanford shortcoming was to be outrebounded 32 to 47.
Not many people saw this game first hand. Attendance was in the 200-250 range.
The second game between Hawaii and Prairie View A & M was a better game. Both of these teams have scrappy players and all involved played hard from start to finish. Hawaii won 72-58, but the Lady Panthers only trailed by 4 points with 6 minutes remaining. Attendance for the second game was about 350, made up primarily of fans of the Rainbow Wahine.
