Wahine and LaTech both have history on their side

LAS VEGAS » For these 40 minutes, history means nothing.

Hawaii proved it twice this year against women’s basketball traditional powerhouse Louisiana Tech. Today, the Rainbow Wahine will go for a triumphant trifecta in their final Western Athletic Conference tournament.

The biggest ups of the regular season for sixth-seeded UH (11-18, 6-8 WAC) came against the third-seeded Lady Techsters (15-14, 8-6), a program that’s won three national championships and been in 13 final fours. This season marked the first time the Wahine swept the Techsters home-and-home.

Even in a down year for the Techsters, that qualifies as impressive. LaTech owns five WAC tournament titles in the past 10 years, and is 20-5 in all WAC tournament games. It has only exited in the first round once in 11 years in the league.

In contrast to LaTech’s glorious past, UH has not been to the WAC semifinals since 2003.

"LaTech has been in this position year in and year out, but that doesn’t say that our team is any hungrier than the LaTech team that knows how to behave or act in this circumstance," UH coach Dana Takahara-Dias said before a team practice. "We like our chances, and we’ve always been optimistic. But still, we will have to play one of our greater games to advance."

By most usual methods of comparison — field-goal efficiency, scoring and turnover margin — LaTech is still the better team. Yet the Wahine seem to enjoy several matchup advantages, including rebounding; the Wahine are tops in the league in that category (plus-2.1), which has historically been a strength of the Techsters.

Not so this year. Sophomore forward Kamilah Jackson — named second-team All-WAC — averaged 17.5 points and 12 rebounds in the two regular-season meetings. Hitting the boards hard again will be key, as will minimizing UH’s WAC-worst turnover margin of negative-6.14.

LaTech was held to its lowest two scoring outputs of the season against UH, 61-46 in Honolulu and 61-49 in Ruston, La.

"Each time we got off to a slow start and dug ourselves a hole," LaTech coach Teresa Weatherspoon said in a news release. "They play a sagging type of defense. I think after we played in Hawaii (the first time) we had a better understanding. We had open shots in both games, but we just didn’t knock them down."

Senior forward Shantale Bramble-Donaldson leads LaTech with 11.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, but was kept in check both times.

"Right now it’s just about preparing well," senior wing Courtney Gaddis said. "We played them twice so we kind of know their tendencies, but we just have to come out really hard and we just have to play a good 40 minutes of basketball. We can’t afford to take possessions off."

The Wahine went straight to Las Vegas after their final two WAC road games — both losses — and have been on the mainland for more than a week. Yet Takahara-Dias wasn’t concerned about distractions.

"These young ladies are on a mission," she said. "We have four seniors who really want to finish strong and change the course of history for us exiting in the first rounds. They know what the task at hand is and how huge a win will be for the program and for themselves. We don’t have any lack of motivation. Not at all."

The same could be said for the UH coaching staff. Takahara-Dias is in the third and final year of her original contract, and any WAC tournament wins would bolster her case for an extension from UH athletic director Jim Donovan.

The last time the Wahine won a WAC tournament game was in 2009, a 70-57 victory in a play-in game against last-place San Jose State. But the last time UH got past the quarterfinal round was nine years ago, a 62-48 defeat of Tulsa orchestrated by the Wahine leader in career wins, Vince Goo.

Goo is on hand to watch this tournament and his protege, Takahara-Dias.