The trip to the islands was a tough one for the men's and women's basketball teams. The Aggie women lost 51-48 in the first game and the men fell 91-87 in the second game.
For the women it was another tough loss in which they were competitive but just could not come up with enough plays in "winning time". Tabytha Wampler had a near double-double with 24 points and nine rebounds but didn't get much help. Kaitlyn Soto had 12 points but Erica Sanchez was held scoreless.
The Aggies were unable to force turnovers against the Wahine. UH came into the game averaging 21 turnovers per game in WAC play but had just 10. The Aggies committed 17 turnovers. The Aggies also didn't get much help from the officials. The Aggies shot just four free throws while UH shot 22.
There was one no-call in particular late that hurt the Aggies. With the Aggies trailing by just one, Kaitlyn Soto drove into the middle of the lane and ran into a UH defender causing her to turn the ball over. There could have very easily been a foul called there. Instead nothing was called, the Aggies turned the ball over, UH maintained their one-point advantage and would later get a pair of free throws to go up by three.
The Aggies did get a couple chances to tie it up late but Sanchez's three point attempt fell short and Kaitlyn Soto's three point attempt was blocked.
It's tough because once agains the Aggies were right there with a chance to win and this road trip could have very easily ended up 2-0 instead of 0-2. The good news for the Aggies is that they get both of these teams in the Pan Am and both will be winnable games for the Aggies.

The Aggie men also suffered defeat as the game turned into the Zane Johnson show. The Aggies led 10-7 early and then UH went on a 15-1 run. The Aggies cut the lead down to just one point with about a minute and a half to go but UH finished the half on an 11-2 run and took a one point lead into the break.
The Aggies cut it to five early in the second half but Johnson buried one of his seven threes in the game and UH exploded and led the game fairly comfortably for most of the rest of the game. The Aggies did make things very interesting late getting it down to four points on a couple of occasions.
Before Aggie fans start jumping off the bandwagon, it's important to remember this was not a must-win game for the Aggies but it was for Hawai'i. Eleven (or possibly twelve) games will win the regular season title and the two most important things are to a) not lose any games at home and b) not lose to a lower-tier team. The Aggies did not suffer either fate last night. The Warriors were our preseason pick to finish second in the league and this one one of the games we had the Aggies losing.
As Jason Groves pointed out last night, the big picture says that the Aggies are just fine in terms of the regular season title race. They just need to take care of business at home on Thursday night against Nevada and they'll be tied for first place (with the head-to-head tiebreaker). As long as the Aggies beat everyone at home and don't lose to lower-tier teams (Fresno, LA Tech, San Jose State) they'll be fine. We can also see them winning in Logan this season although a win at Idaho will be tough but doable. The Aggies could very well finish league play at 12-2 (and that may have to happen for them to win the regular season).
The other big big positive to take away from last night is that the Aggies (contrary to what we thought possible) were able to rally from a 19-point deficit in the second half. The Aggies scored 30 points in the final eight minutes of play, an incredible statistic if you really think about it. One of the big concerns we have for the Aggies is that without a three point shooter (or a couple of three point shooters) that it would be hard for the Aggies to shoot themselves back into a game quickly, however, they showed that with they can erase a big deficit quickly and they can file that away for later.
Secondly, by staging a late rally, even though they didn't come out with the win, they were able to generate some very positive momentum for themselves heading into Thursday. The Aggies will feel much differently about themselves heading into Thursday versus if they had just rolled over and lost by 18 or 20 points. The way a team finishes a game can have a lot of impact on how they come out the next game (call it the hangover effect).
Really the only negative that we can think of from last night's game is that for the majority of the game, the Aggies were getting beat on nearly every 50/50 ball. Good teams and good players (like Zane Johnson) are going to have big nights like they did but that shouldn't affect the Aggies ability to get to 50/50 balls or make hustle plays.
A couple of randoms from last night's game. UH's big man Vander Joaquim picked up two quick fouls in the game and was replaced by Davis Rozitis. Rozitis played the remainder of the half and fouled out before halftime, the first time we've ever seen a player foul out in the first half. It wasn't for naught either as Rozitis had himself a good half finishing with nine points, five rebounds and three blocks in 14 minutes of action.
Second, Hamidu Rahman put together another strong WAC game finishing with 16 points. With 20 points against SJSU and 16 against UH, he's now got 932 points and is well on his way to joining the 1,000 point club. In fact, he should get there by the middle of February and could get there earlier with more games like this past weekend.
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