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RUSTON, La.—The University of Hawai`i women's basketball team (10-15, 5-5 WAC) pulled away from Louisiana Tech (14-12, 7-4 WAC), 61-49 on Saturday night at the Thomas Assembly Center. The win evened UH's conference record at 5-5 and it marked the first time the 'Bows have ever swept the Lady Techsters since Louisiana Tech joined the WAC in the 2001-02 season.
 
Four Rainbow Wahine scored in double figures, led by Kamilah Jackson's 19 points. Jackson was just one rebound shy of another double-double. She was 7-of-13 from the floor and was one of three UH players to sink clutch free throws down the stretch. Jackson went 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
 
Breanna Arbuckle recorded her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Arbuckle had a solid game across the board for Hawai`i with four assists, a block and a steal while playing 33 minutes.
 
Vicky Tagalicod and Alissa Campanero were the other two players to score in double digits. Tagalicod scored 11 points with two 3-pointers, six rebounds, and two key free throws. Campanero had 10 points—including four crucial free-throws with less than a minute to go in the game. She also dished out a career-high seven assists and tied her career-best with three steals in 38 minutes of action.
 
The 'Bows started the game jumping out to a 5-2 lead before Louisiana Tech got their game in gear and went on an 11-0 run to go up 13-5. La Tech built as big a lead as nine points, 21-12 with 7:24 to go in the first half. But the 'Bows chipped away, going on an 11-1 run of their own on two layups by Jackson, a 3-pointer by Campanero, and a jump shot by Kanisha Bello. Two free throws by Cmpanero gave UH a 23-22 lead with 3:50 left in the half. Louisiana Tech then stopped the bleeding, sinking two jump shots of their own to see-saw ahead by three points. Kalei Adolpho then drained one free throw with 1:09 left to cut their deficit to just two points to end the half.
 
Hawai`i came out of halftime and Tagalicod drained a 3-point shot right out of the gate to give UH a one point lead. The score was tied twice more and Louisiana Tech took a one-point lead at the 16:53 mark, but after that UH took control of the game. After the first media time out, Jackson's layup with 14:22 gave Hawai`i a lead that they would end up not relinquishing. But after UH posted an 11 point lead at the 10:50 mark, the Lady Techsters mounted a come-back rally, going on an 11-2 run to cut their deficit to just two points, 46-44. Keep in mind, on Thursday night, Louisiana Tech had successfully come back from being 13 points down with less than 10 minutes left and came all the way back to defeat San Jose State, 73-68—and they were looking for the same result again on Saturday night. But the Rainbow Wahine hung tough, with Arbuckle stopping LaTech's run with a jumper to go up 48-44 with 5:56 remaining. UH would then start to pull away, ending the game on a 15-to-5 streak that was highlighted by five key defensive rebounds by the 'Bows and clutch free throws that sealed the win by Campanero, Tagalicod and Jackson.
 
Not only did the win mark the first time that UH defeated Louisiana Tech twice in one season, but it was just the second time the Hawai`i was able to win at the Thomas Assembly Center in which the Lady Techsters have the second-highest home win percentage (91.3%) in the country with 487 wins to just 46 losses since 1974. The only other time UH won in Ruston came on Feb. 10, 2007 when the 'Bows held off LaTech, 60-49. Ironically that year was also the last time the Rainbow Wahine won back-to-back games on a roadtrip—the same two opponents that UH defeated this year, New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. It also is the first time the the 'Bows have swept two WAC series in a season since 2007-08 (San Jose State and Idaho).
 
Hawai`i held Louisiana Tech to just 49 points tonight. La Tech has been held under 50 points just twice this season—both times were against UH. The 'Bows held the Lady Techsters 18.5 points below their season average of 67.5. The Rainbow Wahine won the battle on the glass 47-to-33 and points in the paint 24-to-16.
 
Louisiana Tech was led by Angie Felton who scored 11 points and Jasmine Bendolph who tallied 10 points.
 
Hawai`i now heads home for its last homestand of the season against Fresno State on Feb. 23 and Nevada on Feb. 25 both at 7:00 p.m. The Nevada game is Senior Night for four UH seniors—Breanna Arbuckle, Rebecca Dew, Carlotta Mingo, and Courtney Gaddis.

Hillary Hurley's 21-point, 7-rebound performance led the Vulcans (10-11 overall, 7-6 PacWest) while three players were in double-digit scoring for the Penguins (4-21, 3-12).
 
“We started off well and knew we wanted to start that way to carry that momentum on the upcoming road trip,” said Kirsten Shimizu. “We played well enough to get everyone in, played all the mixes and contributed.”
 
The Vulcans recorded 19 assists in the game with Shimizu tallying five.
 
“I was glad that I was able to distribute the ball better,” said Shimizu. “We still have things to work on. We were sloppy in the second half. Even though we won, we allowed them to score 40 in that half compared to 15 in the first.
 
“We played too loose and lost focus on what we were trying to do.”

RUSTON, La.--The University of Hawai`i women's basketball team (8-15, 4-5 WAC) heads on their final roadtrip to Ruston, La. to take on Louisiana Tech (14-11, 7-3) in a Western Athletic Conference game at the Thomas Assembly Center on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. 

The Rainbow Wahine continue to be led by sophomore forward Kamilah Jackson who most recently came off the bench to record her 13th double-double of the season posting 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 58-51 win at New Mexico State this past Thursday. Jackson's 10.7 rebounds ranks 13th in the NCAA DI and is tops in the WAC and her 13 double-doubles puts her at No. 6 in the nation. Jackson continues to lead UH with 13.1 points per game and has scored 314 points overall--80 points more than her nearest teammate. She has upped her numbers across the board in her second season at Hawai`i--tallying 52 assists, 17 blocks, 19 steals, and is 120-of-176 in free-throws for a .682 percentage.

Sophomore forward Vicky Tagalicod has been steady since joining the 'Bows on Dec. 19th she has started the team's last 15 games and is second on the team averaging 10.5 points per game. This past Thursday, she just missed her first career double-double at NMSU shooting 5-for-8 from the floor with two clutch freethrows down the stretch for 13 points and nine rebounds. Since transferring from USC after the fall semester in Dec. 2010, Tagalicod has helped to bring new fight into the UH squad along with fellow mid-season player, freshman center Kalei Adolpho. Adolpho--a freshman from Ho`olehua, Moloka`i--joined the basketball team after spending her first fall at Manoa as a middle hitter on UH's women's volleyball team. Adolpho is second on the team averaging 6.5 rebounds per game and is also second with 18 blocked shots. She is averaging 6.7 points per game.

Also having a solid senior campaign is Breanna Arbuckle, who helped lead UH to the win at NM State, scoring 17 points with six rebounds. Overall, Arbuckle is averaging a career high 9.8 points per game and has added 6.3 boards a game. She is also shooting a career-high .641 free-throw percentage (84-for 131) which is over .200 points higher than last season.

The Lady Techsters are winners of six of their last seven games since losing at Hawaii on Jan. 19. Head coach Teresa Witherspoon has her team firing on all cylinders with Shantale Bramble-Donaldson leading the team with 11.6 points and 7.8 rebounds a game. This past Thursday, the Lady Techsters came from behind to down San Jose State in Ruston, 73-68. A pair of Whitneys -- Whitney Frazier and Whitney Jones each posted 21 points with Bramble-Donaldson logging a double-double with 11 points and 12 boards.

It was the usual suspects that had big nights for HPU. Hopkins recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, she also had four steals. Gravely kept up her hot play of late with a 21 point performance, including a pair of three-pointers. Huskey went 6-8 from the foul line on her way to a 14 point night, she added five assists. Susannah Walmsley had a team-high six assists to go with six points and four steals.

A Hopkins layup with 16:56 left in the first half gave HPU the lead, and the Sea Warriors would not look back, never trailing again. HPU opened the lead up to double digits on a Gravely three with 4:22 to play in the opening half. By the break, HPU led 37-23.

HPU played even better in the second half, posting 41 points on 54% (15-28) shooting. HPU led by 31 four different times, which was the biggest margin of the game.

In the last two games combined, HPU has won by 96 points.

The Sea Warriors are now 13-10 and 7-6 in conference as NDNU is 4-11, 6-17.

HPU will close the season with four road games, starting on Tuesday against Academy of Art in San Francisco. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:00 PM PST.