The Hawaii women’s basketball team visited the Stan Sheriff Center’s lost and found on Saturday afternoon.
UH lost a close battle with No. 12 North Carolina State 68-59 but found something it had misplaced in a disappointing loss the day before.
“Effort. We talked a lot about effort yesterday, or a lack of,” coach Laura Beeman said of Friday’s 66-60 loss to North Texas.
“When you have effort, the game is effortless. And today we had effort. So, if we continue to do that, I think we’ve shown what kind of team we can be.”
The Rainbow Wahine
(3-4) took their third straight loss heading into today’s matchup with formerly ranked Texas (4-3) at 2:30 p.m. to conclude the Heineken Showdown. They enter it with a renewed sense of purpose after hanging within a point of the Wolfpack (7-0) with less than three minutes left.
UH did it by committing a season-low six turnovers and hitting a season-high 11 3-pointers.
“Not that I’m surprised, but I’ll take that any day against a top-15 team in the country,” Beeman said.
The Wahine looked to box out at all positions against one of the nation’s best rebounding units. They still lost that battle by 18. NC State forward Elissa Cunane grabbed 11; she and guard Aislinn Konig led the Wolfpack with 22 points each.
“They were just a little bit faster than the teams we normally face, in our conference and stuff,” said UH senior guard Julissa Tago, who scored a season-high 23 on 8-for-21 shooting. “But being able to play against them and realize what we can do, we can do that any night. … In my opinion, I feel like we should’ve won the game.”
Tago and Amy Atwell hit 3s to get UH within a point at 56-55 and 59-58, the latter with 2:35 on the clock. The Wolfpack had a final answer in a 9-0 run.
“It was honestly defensive breakdowns. We got a little excited and we did things that we weren’t doing the whole game,” Tago said.
Beeman credited second-unit players Kasey Neubert, Barbara Rangel and Savannah Reier with providing a spark in the third quarter to chip into a 15-point deficit. Neubert, a 6-1 forward, scored all nine of her points consecutively in the period.
“Effort, that was my whole thing. I just wanted to push as hard as I can,” Neubert said. “Get every rebound I possibly can. Just do my job, fight for it, help my team and bring energy off the bench.”
UH’s barrage of 3s, including a few in the second quarter to briefly take the lead, surprised NC State coach Wes Moore nearing the end of a long trip for the ACC team.
“Hawaii, they took us to the limit there. You wish you could’ve gone to the bench more and keep some people fresher, but we ended up having to go with veterans down the stretch to find a way to win,” said Moore, a former assistant under legendary NC State coach Kay Yow. “First of all, Hawaii did a great job, played a great game. We still don’t have an answer for Tago. … And they had some kids hit some 3s that we weren’t necessarily expecting them to do that.”
Senior guard Courtney Middap went down in pain with 1:30 left and was helped off the floor.
“If she can go, Courtney will go,” Beeman said of today’s game. “If she can’t, she won’t, and we’ll get on that floor tomorrow and do what we’re supposed to do.”
