OAKLAND, Calif. – Nationally ranked Hawai'i Pacific University began a three-game Bay Area road trip with an 87-34 PacWest Conference thumping of Holy Names on Thursday evening at Tobin Gym.
The Sharks (7-1, 2-0), ranked 20th in the WBCA Coaches poll and 13th in the D2SIDA poll, trailed only briefly at the game's start before drilling the Hawks (0-7, 0-2). HPU led by double-digits after the first quarter and never looked back.
True freshman
Avery Cargill of Santa Rosa, Calif./Cardinal Newman, came off the bench to lead the Sharks with 21 points. Cargill was 8-of-11 from the floor, hitting 4-of-7 from the 3-point arc. Senior
Starr Rivera of Honolulu/Roosevelt added 18 points, while sophomore
Abbey Noblett of Morwell, Australia/Lavalla Catholic added 13 points and four steals, and junior Alisha Marcucci of Melbourne, Australia/Marist-Sion tossed in 10 points with four assists. Sophomore
Amy Baum of Melbourne, Australia/Rowville Secondary pulled down 13 rebounds with four points and four assists in the contest.
Holy Names was led by Gernijah Martin with 10 points and five rebounds. Brooke Clinton added six points.
HPU shot 45 percent from the field (32-of-71), including 8-of-26 (31 percent) from the 3-point arc. The Sharks also connected on 15-of-19 (79 percent) from the free throw line. Holy Names was held to just 23 percent from the floor (11-of-48), including only 1-of-12 (eight percent) from the arc and 11-of-22 (50 percent) from the charity stripe. HPU outrebounded the Hawks 46-24, and forced 22 Hawk turnovers to its own 14.
Holy Names opened the game with a 4-2 lead and held a 5-4 advantage halfway through the first quarter. Then Noblett got a layup to give HPU its first lead at 6-5 and started an 11-0 run in the next three minutes and another Noblett layin made it a 13-2 run to the end of the quarter for a 17-7 advantage.
HNU scored to start the second quarter before HPU answered with layups from Noblett and Rivera to push the lead back into double-digits. The Sharks continued to edge the lead through the rest of the second frame and closed the half with a free throw and a 3-pointer from Cargill to take a 21-point 37-16 lead into intermission.
The Sharks continued to dominate after the half, with all nine players on the trip seeing action, pushing the lead to 30 on a jumper by junior
Makenna Gambee of Hillsboro, Ore./Hillsboro with 5:57 left in the third. HPU got a layup in the final seconds of the period by sophomore
Ally Bates of Melbourne, Australia/Yarra Valley for a 39-point lead at 66-27.
The Hawks picked up the first score of the final quarter before HPU got a 3-pointer from Bates to key a 9-0 run. Cargill capped the game for HPU with a 3-pointer and a layup as the Sharks finished with a 53-point victory 87-34.
The Sharks have a day off before hitting the hardwood again on Saturday at Notre Dame de Namur. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. HST (5:30 p.m. PST) at Gleason Gym.
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