Just days after the Pac-12 Conference named her freshman of the week, former Konawaena standout Chanelle Molina took it one giant step further.
The three-time all-state player of the year scored 33 points to power Washington State over No. 9 UCLA, 82-73, in Pullman, Wash. Molina tied the freshman scoring mark set by another former Konawaena Wildcat, Lia Galdeira. The victory on Friday night quickly made headlines near and far for Molina and the Cougars, from the Big Island’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald to the Seattle Times, as well as breaking news in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Molina also had five rebounds and seven assists to go with her career-high scoring output.
This video was posted to the Washington State Athletics’ YouTube channel.
Impressive
Super proud of the kid, that is a testament of playing true fundamental basketball throughout her career. What a great role model for the youth of Hawaii and beyond. Keep killing it!
I guess she made the right choice, huh Pun.
She is going to have a great college career. To bad UH couldn’t land one of them. Looks like the Cougars are going to end up with all three of them.
Wait…so 88 you think scoring a bunch of points and doing well in a basketball game is more important than getting a superior degree from a top university? Please do not tell me that is how you think.
Maybe you might not understand, but unless you are planning to live in Europe, most ladies cannot make a living playing professional basketball. This is not men’s. So the smart play for most is to get a top degree, then turn it to a graduate degree, and then use that for a high paying job.
I mean comparing WSU to Cal, UCLA, USC (schools she could have gotten into) is like comparing a Echo to a Porshe, Ferrari, and Lambo.
Great job Chanelle! Too bad some of you can’t be happy for any of our local athletes success, crabs in a bucket. She chose the school she wanted to attend, who are we to second guess her decision? Getting a degree from WSU doesn’t mean you”ll be any less successful than a person with a degree from CAL or USC.
Pun were those schools, Cal, UCLA and USC offering her? If not, then she probably made a choice that she thought would bring her success and so far the choice that she made is turning out to be the right one.
88, girls basketball recruiting in Hawaii is much different than football which seems to be your expertise. Since there are not that many D1 caliber girls basketball players in Hawaii, colleges rarely send down recruiters to the Islands.
So what typically needs to happen is team, either school or club, travel to mainland viewing tournaments where kids can be seen. Molina traveled to Oregon which is more of a second tier tournament. Based on what college coaches have said, she was on the radar from more prominent universities like the one I mentioned. However, her Coach didn’t have the contacts to get her into more high profile summer tournaments and from what I was told, turned down the opportunity to join other traveling teams to play in the more prominent tournaments.
Many believe if she did take this opportunity, she would have quite possibly had her pick on pretty much any Pac 12 school. Please take that for what you think it’s worth. Good day….
GO COUGS!
Haters gonna hate.