Flashes Struggle From Foul Line in Loss at Hawai'i
12/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
HONOLULU, Hawaii After a 15-hour travel day yesterday, the road-weary Kent State University womens basketball teams struggles from the foul line were a big factor in a 61-55 loss to the University of Hawai'i on Wednesday night at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
The Golden Flashes (7-3) hit just 7-of-16 (43.8%) of their free throws, meanwhile the Rainbow Wahine (8-2) were 18-of-26 (69.2%) from the charity stripe in winning their sixth straight game.
Kent State jumped out to an early 17-6 lead, using penetration from guards Kerrie James (Mississauga, Ontario/Power) and Malika Willoughby (Milwaukee, Wis./Washington/UW-Milwaukee), as well as a pair of three-pointers Lindsay Shearer (Minerva, Ohio/Minerva).
The Rainbows were able to battle back by shooting 12-of-17 from the line in the first half, closing the period on a 13-2 run to take a 33-30 lead.
The Flashes never led in the second half and saw the deficit extended to as many as nine points. KSU got within three points on a jumper by Shearer midway through the period and was down just two with 5:44 left after jumper off the glass by James. However the Flashes would not score again until James hit a pair of free throws with 0.4 seconds left.
After a great start shooting the basketball, KSU cooled off to just 21-of-67 (31.3%) from the field, 6-of-16 (37.54%) from behind the three-point arc after a 5-of-7 start.
The Rainbows were just 1-of-10 from three-point range, but had a 54-47 rebounding edge, including 18 on the offensive glass. Janevia Taylor led Hawaii with a game-high 20 points.
Junior Sarah Burgess (Brook Park,Ohio/Regina/South Carolina) scored 17 points in just her second game for Kent State. Shearer had 15, but was just 6-of-22 overall from the field. James matched her career high for the second straight game with 13 points.
After a day off, the two teams will meet again on Friday night at 7 p.m. HST, midnight in the Eastern Time Zone.
GAME NOTES: Hawaii shot 32.3% (21-of-65) from the field overall... Kent State lost for the first time when holding an opponent under 40% shooting (6-1)... Brittany Grice had 16 rebounds for Hawaii... Willoughby had six assists, surpassing 400 for her career (403). She is the fourth player in school history to achieve that feat... Shearer matched her career-high with three three-pointers. She had not hit a three in her previous three games.
