Finally in the win column in Big West play, the Hawaii women’s basketball team will return home to hopefully get healthy.
MeiLani McBee and Lily Wahinekapu led three Hawaii players in double figures with 14 points and the Rainbow Wahine snapped a three-game skid with a 62-50 victory over Cal Poly on Saturday afternoon at Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Wahinekapu added seven assists and Brooklyn Rewers chipped in 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Mia ‘Uhila contributed nine points and five rebounds for the Rainbow Wahine (7-6, 1-2), who survived a quick turnaround with a mid-day tip less than 48 hours after Thursday’s loss to UC Santa Barbara.
“With all the kids we have injured and sick and everything else, it’s nice to see a group of kids really bounce back,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “It was not an easy game. Cal Poly always makes it really hard and really ugly, but it’s good to get a win and now it’s just a matter of getting people back healthy and getting them over their sicknesses.”
Just like the Hawaii men’s volleyball team this week, the Rainbow Wahine team has had players in and out of urgent care with the stomach flu.
Hawaii got back sophomore guard Jovi Lefotu, who managed to play seven minutes off the bench, but was without senior guard Kelsie Imai for a fourth straight game and forward Imani Perez, who missed both games this week.
The Rainbow Wahine outrebounded the Mustangs 41-31 and assisted on 12 of 18 made field goals after tallying a season-low four assists against the Gauchos.
Hawaii held the reigning Big West Player of the Week, Annika Shah, to five points. Shah, who entered the game fourth in the conference in scoring and third in field-goal percentage, shot 1-for-11 from the field and 1-for-7 from 3.
A 19-5 Hawaii surge in the second quarter provided the difference.
“Defensively we got after it,” Beeman said. “Offensively we moved the ball (in that quarter), and that’s the area where we’re struggling the most is finding consistency. One of the areas we’re really working on is ball movement.”
Ashley Hiraki hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter for Cal Poly (6-8, 1-2), which led 16-13 after the opening 10 minutes before the Rainbow Wahine came alive.
Hawaii pushed the pace, moved the ball, and got inside touches that led to buckets in outscoring the Mustangs by 14 points in the second quarter to take a 32-21 halftime lead.
McBee had nine of her points in the quarter, including one on a technical free throw as the Mustangs were clearly frustrated by the time the halftime buzzer sounded.
Cal Poly never got closer than eight points the rest of the game but forced Hawaii to make free throws down the stretch as it tried to extend the game.
Wahinekapu and ‘Uhila combined for 14 of UH’s 18 points in the fourth quarter and went 10-for-15 from the free-throw line after UH went almost six minutes without a point.
Hawaii shot 77% (20-for-26) from the free-throw line but committed 21 turnovers.
Freshman center Ritorya Tamilo had eight rebounds and a block but was held to two points and committed eight turnovers. It was the fifth consecutive game Tamilo, who was averaging double figures in scoring, was held to five field-goal attempts or less.
“We’re trying,” Beeman said about getting the ball inside. “I think at times our guards really passed our bigs into some turnovers and our bigs were struggling a little bit with space.”
Hawaii next plays UC Riverside on Thursday, its first home game in 24 days. UH is 5-2 at home this season and 2-4 in road and neutral site games.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Davis 3 0 1.000 — 9 4
Long Beach St. 3 0 1.000 — 7 5
UC Irvine 2 0 1.000 1
2 8 4
UC Riverside 2 1 .667 1 6 7
UCSB 2 1 .667 1 8 5
UC San Diego 1 1 .500 11
2 5 9
Cal Poly 1 2 .333 2 6 7
CS Northridge 1 2 .333 2 3 9
Hawaii 0 2 .000 21
2 6 6
CS Fullerton 0 3 .000 3 2 11
CS Bakersfield 0 3 .000 3 0 13
Saturday
Hawaii at Cal Poly, 11 a.m.
Cal State Fullerton at UC San Diego
Cal State Northridge at UC Davis
Cal State Bakersfield at Long Beach State
UC Irvine at UC Riverside
Thursday
UC Riverside at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC San Diego at Cal Poly
Cal State Northridge at UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Bakersfield
UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton
Saturday, Jan. 11
Cal State Fullerton at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC San Diego at UC Irvine
Cal State Bakersfield at Cal State Northridge
UC Davis at Long Beach State
Cal Poly at UC Santa Barbara
HAWAII 62, CAL POLY 50
RAINBOW WAHINE (7-6, 1-2)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
McBee 34 3-6 5-6 5 1 2 14
Wahinekapu 31 4-6 5-8 1 7 3 14
Phillips 34 3-10 1-1 7 1 3 8
Tamilo 19 0-4 2-2 8 1 3 2
Peacock 18 1-4 0-0 1 0 0 2
Rewers 21 5-10 0-0 5 0 2 11
‘Uhila 20 2-3 5-7 5 2 3 9
Moors 16 0-2 2-2 2 0 0 2
Lefotu 7 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0
TEAM 6
TOTALS 200 18-45 20-26 41 12 17 62
MUSTANGS (6-8, 1-3)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Carter 31 4-14 1-1 5 1 2 10
Hiraki 28 3-7 0-0 1 1 5 9
Bourland 26 3-8 3-4 4 1 1 9
Richards 34 2-6 2-2 6 1 5 6
Shah 35 1-11 2-2 0 2 3 5
Lichtie 31 5-10 1-2 6 3 4 11
Goosby 12 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Robinson 3 0-2 0-0 1 1 0 0
TEAM 8
TOTALS 200 18-58 9-11 31 10 20 50
Key — min: minutes played; fg-a: field goals
made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; a: assists; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points.
Score By Period
Hawaii 13 19 12 18 – 62
Cal Poly 16 5 12 17 – 50
3-point goals — Hawaii 6-18 (McBee 3-6,
Rewers 1-2, Wahinekapu 1-2, Phillips 1-5,
Moors 0-1, Peacock 0-2). Cal Poly 5-25
(Hiraki 3-5, Carter 1-7, Shah 1-7, Bourland
0-1, Richards 0-2, Lichtie 0-3). Steals —
Hawaii 5 (Moors 2, McBee, Phillips, Wahinekapu). Cal Poly 12 (Lichtie 4, Richards 3,
Carter 2, Hiraki 2, Shah). Blocked shots
— Hawaii 5 (Lefotu, McBee, Peacock,
Tamilo ‘Uhila). Cal Poly 1 (Carter). Turnovers — Hawaii 21 (Tamilo 8, Phillips 3,
McBee 2, Wahinekapu 2, Lefotu, Moors,
Peacock, Rewers, Team, ‘Uhila). Cal Poly
15 (Lichtie 6, Shah 4, Richards 2, Bourland, Carter, Hiraki). Technical fouls — Cal
Poly 1 (Bourland). Officials — Lorena Ahumada, Johnny Mendez Jr., Jeffrey Benson.
A — 448.
