On an evening that might have spurred James Naismith to put the peaches back in the basket, the Rainbow Wahine shook off 20 first-half turnovers and played to their advantages inside to defeat San Jose State, 61-47, before a turnstile crowd of 354 last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Tara Hittle led UH with 15 points and eight rebounds. Tanya Smith added 10 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Saundra Cariaga, bouncing back from a foul-plagued effort against Fresno State on Thursday, finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Natalie White was the only San Jose State player in double-figures, finishing with 15 points on 6 of 21 shooting from the field (1-of-8 from 3-point range).

While the Rainbows (10-15 overall, 4-8 in the Western Athletic Conference) won the game, they may have lost their top reserve in the post when Iwona Zagrobelna crumbled to the floor with an apparent left knee injury with 6:14 left in the game.

UH head coach Jim Bolla said Zagrobelna would be re-evaluated tomorrow. Her status for the Rainbows' final road trip next is uncertain.

UH turned over the ball 33 times in the game, compared to 23 times for SJSU and took 21 fewer shots, yet cruised to victory by dominating the paint and drawing fouls. They shot 28 free throws, compared to just 12 for the Spartans.

UH outrebounded SJSU overall 46-31, yet somehow grabbed four fewer offensive rebounds.

"Those no way to make sense of those," said Bolla. "Those are non-sensible numbers."

The Rainbows got off to a rocky start, turning over the ball on four of their first five possessions, kickstarting an SJSU offense that demonstrated little ability to generate anything productive on its own.

The Spartans scored their first 15 points off of UH turnovers.

The Rainbows' miscues with the ball nearly negated their statistical dominance of the Spartans in the half.

Thanks in large part to the aggressiveness of Smith and Hittle beneath the rim, UH shot 18 free throws compared to just two for SJSU. The Rainbows also outrebounded SJSU 26-17 and held them to just 23 percent shooting in the half.

UH trailed SJSU 21-17 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Emily Nichols. They tied the score from the free throw line, then took the lead on a turnaround jumper by Hittle with four minutes left, the last field goal for either team in the half.

The Spartans took 22 more shots than UH (39-17) in the half yet trailed 26-21 heading into intermission.

At halftime, Bolla repeated his simple law of averages regarding shot attempts.

"When you take a shot, it can go in or you can get fouled," he said. "If you miss, you can get a rebound and either take another shot or get fouled. I've yet to see anyone not take a shot and score."

In the second half, the Rainbows managed 10 more shot attempts and relentlessly attacked the teeth of the SJSU defense to get to the line. UH outscored SJSU 42-16 in the paint.

"We had a height advantage, so we played to our strength," Smith said. "In the first half, we just made a lot of silly mistakes, but we adjusted and played better in the second half."

With the loss, the Spartans fall to 2-24 overall, 1-12 in the WAC.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.