newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — A much smaller Hawaii Pacific team was big trouble for UC San Diego.

For the second night in a row, the UCSD Tritons couldn’t keep an early lead, but a flurry of scoring gave them a 73-60 win over the Hawaii Pacific Sea Warriors on Friday afternoon in the Patty Center, during the second day of the North Star Invitational women’s college basketball tournament.

The Sea Warriors have just four players taller than 6 feet to UCSD’s 11, but Hawaii Pacific’s defense bumped, swarmed and harassed the Tritons’ height advantage away.

“I think we let it affect us,” UCSD coach Charity Elliott said of the Sea Warriors physicality.

“We counteracted their size advantage by zoning and forcing them to make jump shots,” Hawaii Pacific coach Jeff Harada said.

That plan was effective for most of the game. The Sea Warriors’ defense gave the Tritons few easy passes, and UCSD’s outside shooting was ineffective.

The Triton’s first of two 3-pointers were made by Mollie McIntyre with 9:05 remaining in the game.

“We came out lackadaisical, and they hit some shots,” Elliott said. “… We did too much dribbling and holding the ball.”

The Sea Warriors’ spirited approach led to a tie at 48 with 10:47 remaining in the second half, but the Tritons, bolstered by forward Michelle Osier’s 20 points, on 9-for-12 shooting, and eight rebounds, were too much for Hawaii Pacific to overcome.

UCSD ended the game on a 19-7 run in the final six minutes, and the Tritons were able to get the ball in the paint more frequently as time expired. Guard Annete Ilg added 16 points, five rebounds and three steals, while center Alexis Gaskin had 11 points and seven rebounds.

“We played very hard for 36 minutes,” Harada said. “Unfortunately, the game’s 40 minutes.”

Hawaii Pacific’s season scoring leader Mana Hopkins was limited to six points and five rebounds, but shooting guard Paris Gravely had a stellar game off the bench with 20 points in just 23 minutes.

UC San Diego (4-1) is 2-0 in the North Star Invitational and will play the Alaska Nanooks (3-3) for the tournament championship at 4:30 today. Hawaii Pacific (1-3) will play Holy Family (3-2), both 0-2 in the tournament, at 2 p.m.