In her first season at Hawaii, women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman instructed her team to cut down the nets on a victorious senior night in order to acclimate to the championship feel of the following week’s 2013 Big West tournament.
She dusted off that playbook during last week’s road sweep of Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara — minus the twine-snipping in hostile territory.
The Rainbow Wahine treated the two road games “as if it was the Big West Conference championship,” Beeman said back at the Stan Sheriff Center on Tuesday. “And the focus was different, the intent was different, the sense of urgency was different. Now we have to be able to sustain that. We have to win at home. We haven’t been able to do that (4-6), which is abnormal. We need to change that this week.”
If it maintains its recent intensity, UH (7-11, 3-2 BWC) should be able to handle this week’s opponents, UC Riverside (7 p.m. today) and Cal Poly (5:30 p.m. Saturday). But consistency has not been this team’s strongest attribute.
They beat defending champ UC Davis — still the only league loss for the Aggies — and followed that up with the infamous 29-point outing against Cal State Northridge. But on the Central California Coast, the Wahine were dialed in defensively. They held the Mustangs and Gauchos to a combined 32.9 percent shooting. UCSB was denied a 3 and scored the lowest total (35) of a Wahine road opponent in 33 years.
“We’re feeling great. The Northridge game the other week kind of woke us up a little bit,” senior wing/forward Leah Salanoa said. “It kind of got our mind-set to change a little bit about practicing hard every day and really locking in to the game plan.”
Salanoa has enjoyed a breakout final year, 9.4 ppg and 4.8 rpg, with 40 percent shooting on 3s and 85.7 percent at the line. She took a step forward when twin sister Lahni was injured to start the season.
“Players mature at different rates,” Beeman said. “You get freshmen who come in and they act like it’s their senior year, and then you get seniors who come in and act like it’s their senior year. And whether it’s a little bit later than I would’ve wanted or not, she’s risen to the occasion for us.”
RAINBOW WAHINE BASKETBALL
at Stan Sheriff Center
Today: UC Riverside (8-11, 2-3 Big West) at Hawaii (7-11, 3-2), 7 p.m.
Saturday: Cal Poly (4-13, 1-5) at Hawaii, 5:30 p.m.
TV: Spectrum Sports
Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
