Christmas is still a week away, but Hawaii coach Laura Beeman has probably had this Sunday circled for a while now.
After dealing with a short bench through nine games, Beeman will have more depth — and height — available for the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s final road trip of 2016.
Injuries limited UH to eight players for five games this season and the depth chart dipped to seven against UCLA two weeks ago. With the ailments healed and center Adrienne Darden becoming eligible this week, the Wahine rotation will swell to double digits for the first time this season when they visit Nevada and Boise State.
“At least we’ll have 11 bodies, and that’s what we’ve been looking for,” Beeman said. “It gives you some flexibility with substitutions. It gives you flexibility when people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. It just gives you a lot of different options.”
The Rainbow Wahine (3-6) revisit two old Western Athletic Conference rivalries starting today at Nevada (5-5). After a travel day, they’ll face Boise State (8-1) on Tuesday before dispersing for Christmas.
The Wahine got a boost last Sunday with the return of forward Lahni Salanoa from a four-game absence due to an ankle injury. Freshman guard Courtney Middap made her collegiate debut against Hawaii Pacific after missing the first eight games following knee surgery.
This week they’ll add Darden, a 6-foot-4 freshman, who became eligible for the road trip.
Darden transferred from Delaware last spring and her participation so far this season was limited to practice while sitting out the fall semester. With the end of final exams on Friday, Darden is poised to make her UH debut this week.
Darden adds an imposing presence in the paint to complement true freshmen Makenna Woodfolk, Keleah-Aiko Koloi and Taylor Donohue.
“It allows us to do some things differently defensively, but it’s that depth to say now we’ve got a big body to bang back on people,” Beeman said. “(Woodfolk, Donohue and Koloi), they’ve been taking the brunt of a lot of physical post players. Now (Darden) can give it out. … She doesn’t shy away from physicality.”
Lahni and Leah Salanoa are coming off the most productive games of their UH careers in last Sunday’s 88-54 win over Hawaii Pacific. Both twins hit four 3-pointers with Leah finishing with 19 points, Lahni adding 13 points and six rebounds and six Wahine players scoring in double figures. Both average 7.8 points per game while guard Sarah Toeaina continues to lead the team with 12.1.
Nevada has faced two other Big West teams, opening the season with an overtime loss against Long Beach State and falling to UC Irvine on Dec. 1. Guard Riana Everidge, a 6-1 sophomore, leads the Wolf Pack with 13.4 points per game. Nevada ranks second in the Mountain West Conference in scoring at 70.3 ppg.
Boise State raced to an 8-0 start and received votes in the national polls before losing at No. 11 Washington 92-66 a week ago. Still, the Broncos are off to their best start since the 1974-75 season led by senior guard Brooke Pahukoa’s 14.7 ppg. The Broncos rank 10th nationally in 3-point percentage, hitting 40.3 percent of their attempts beyond the arc.
