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SAN FRANCISCO – Propelled by senior guard
Mel Khlok's 17-point outing, the San Francisco women's basketball team picked up an opening-night win over visiting Hawaii to start the 2012-13 campaign on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
The 1-0 start by the Dons is just the second this millennium and the first since 2003-04 began with a victory over South Carolina State. In part, Khlok credits the team chemistry and cohesion with the trend toward winning, as the Dons also earned an exhibition victory a week ago against Missouri Southern.
“This team is just different from the last three years I've been here. It's a family,” the guard said after the win. “There's a lot of togetherness and everything I do is for the team, not for myself. I want the team to know that this is not an individual sport so hopefully my leadership helps that.”
USF started the game with a 7-2 deficit after Hawaii's Diane Moore swished a trey in the early minutes of the first half. The visitors' lead grew to eight points after a successful and-1 attempt by Wahine player Sydney Haydel at the 12:23 mark.
But the Dons took advantage of the game from that point on, riding a remarkable 14-0 run to put the score at 19-13 in favor of USF with 7:28 to play in the first. The Dons kept their lead heading into the half after Khlok sunk a three off the assist by
Aundrea Gordon with 38 seconds to play before the break put the score at 28-23.
The second began with another triple for the Dons, this one from the hand of freshman
Taylor Proctor. USF continued to grow its lead and with just under eight minutes to play a Gordon layup gave the Dons their largest lead of the night, at 52-37.
However, Hawaii battled back to cut the lead to five points with 1:43 to play after Kamilah Martin's putback made the score 57-52. Unwilling to see the lead slip away, Khlok again drilled a three in response to stall the Hawaii comeback bid and finish the game on a 8-0 run.
Along with Khlok's game-high17 points, USF got 12 points off 5-of-9 shooting and five rebounds from freshman Denae Mary Williams. Proctor finished the night with 10 points and six boards in the win.
Hawaii's Martin finished with a game-high 15 rebounds but was held to 2-of-5 shooting from the floor in the loss. The Wahine finished with a slight rebounding edge, 38-35, but USF was able to capitalize on its opportunities when they were presented, outscoring the opponents 14-6 in its second chance attempts.
Up next for USF is a home date with UC Davis at War Memorial Gym on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
