HONOLULU, Hawai'i - Rachele Kloke scored 25 points, but Hawai'i dominated the second half as the Idaho women's basketball team fell to the Rainbow Wahine 72-60 on Saturday night.
Kloke hit 9-of-14 shots in the game, but the rest of the Vandals (12-9, 5-4 Western Athletic Conference) went just 12-of-44 from the field. UH (8-15, 2-8 WAC) took advantage of a hot second half, shooting 64.3 percent in the second, and 53.8 percent in the game (28-for-52) to cruise to victory.
The Vandals led for the first 30 minutes of the game, but Hawai'i took its first lead of the night in the midst of a 9-0 run, pulling ahead 48-47 with 9:41 left to play, and would never look back. The Rainbow Wahine ballooned the lead to 57-49 with under five minutes to play, and the Vandals would trail by double figures for the final four minutes.
Much of Hawai'i's run came with Kloke out of the game. After a collision while going after a loose ball, Kloke left the game for nearly four minutes.
"She (Kloke) was doing a great job," Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. "Offensively she was unstoppable before she got thrown to the deck."
In addition to her 25 points, Kloke had seven rebounds and four steals in the game.
Idaho led 33-27 at the break, but UH outscored the Vandals 45-27 in the second half, while Idaho turned the ball over 11 times and made just seven field goals in the period.
Hawai'i did much of its work down low, taking advantage of a physical style of play to score 50 points in the paint, compared to just 20 for the Vandals.
"What I told them is when the game gets out of control we have to respond," Newlee said. "We have to respond physically. Whatever is going on, we have to respond physically to that. We just got beat up tonight, and we need to get tougher."
Derisa Taleni had eight points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Vandals, and Jessica Graham scored nine points, all in the first half, on 4-of-6 shooting. Yinka Olorunnife finished the game with eight points and eight rebounds, but went just 2-of-13 from the field, and was in foul trouble for much of the night.
Idaho finished the game shooting 21-for-58 for the game (36.2 percent), including 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from 3-point range. The Vandals gave up a 35-33 edge on the glass, and turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 22 UH points.
Hawai'i was led by 15 points from Shawna-Lei Kuehu, and 12 points and eight rebounds from Kamilah Jackson.
The Vandals return to action Feb. 10 when they visit Logan, Utah to take on Utah State. The Vandals are currently one game behind the Aggies for third place in the WAC standings.
