They’ve never played in the Honda Center, but in a sense, the members of the Hawaii women’s basketball team have been there before.
The Rainbow Wahine projected calm a day out from their most meaningful game this season, a Big West tournament semifinal matchup with UC Riverside.
“The blessing of this is, most of us have been doing this most of our lives,” senior point guard Tia Kanoa said in a phone interview from Southern California on Thursday. “We’ve been doing this a lot. Tight games, and tough games, and pressure games, and important ones that matter to us. Whether that’s AAU, high school, or even when it’s super pressure in middle school.
“These kind of situations, we’ve all been in them. So we kind of have that (experience) where we’ve been able to say, ‘We’ve been in this position before.’ But this is the ultimate intensity for us now. So we gotta make sure that we turn it up.”
Second-seeded UH (14-15) and third-seeded UCR (17-14) tip off at 11:30 a.m. for a spot in Saturday’s championship game. Top-seeded UC Davis and fifth-seeded UC Irvine meet in the other semifinal preceding UH’s game.
UH has balanced tactical rest and relaxation with intense practices at Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College since winning two games last week, clinching a double bye to the semis. One of those came at the expense of Riverside, a 51-44 spoiling of the Highlanders’ senior night that avenged a five-point home loss in January.
The Highlanders were without their best player, All-Big West guard Jannon Otto, for the second meeting because of a foot or leg injury, and she has not yet returned to action. She’s not expected to play today.
Forwards Marina Ewodo (11.4 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game) and Malou De Kergret (11.1 ppg) are the Highlanders’ primary offensive threats with Otto out. But John Margaritis’ team runs a motion offense in which several players moonlight as playmakers; six Highlanders have 40 or more assists this season.
They were frisky enough to knock out Long Beach State 67-50 in the second round Wednesday.
“I think the biggest thing is what they do as a team with their offense and just their overall length,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “They’re very, very long, they can switch across the board, so it poses you problems offensively to attack them. But that motion offense, they know it very well, they know their reads.”
Attacking the switches without hesitation is paramount, she said.
UH last played in the semifinals in 2016, when it won the tournament as the No. 2 seed and reached its first NCAA tournament since 1998.
The Wahine have two players who were on that senior-laden 2015-16 team — twins Leah and Lahni Salanoa — but neither senior played in the tournament as freshmen that year.
UH never got the chance to play in the Honda Center the past two years; it was bounced in the tournament’s first and second rounds at campus sites.
Once Makenna Woodfolk left the program five games ago with an announced pregnancy, Kanoa, the Salanoas, guard Courtney Middap and freshman Myrrah Joseph stepped into more assertive roles.
Leah Salanoa, who’s enjoyed a breakout year and moved into eighth place in Wahine career 3s with 103, has never felt better about her team’s prospects in an up-and-down — and presently up — season.
“This year is definitely different,” Salanoa said. “It feels good. It feels like we got it, I’m not gonna lie. It feels like we’re here for a reason. Nobody can stop us, honestly. Personally, yes, I feel great. To be a part of something like this is amazing, and this team and coaches and our fan base is crazy. I gotta do it for them.”
BIG WEST SEMIFINALS
At Honda Center, Anaheim, Calif.
Today
>> No. 1 UC Davis (23-6) vs. No. 5 UC Irvine (20-10), 9 a.m.
>> No. 2 Hawaii (14-15) vs. No. 3 UC Riverside (17-14), 11:30 a.m.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
>> Video streaming: ESPN3
