Late-game comebacks have been a winning formula as of late for the Hawaii women’s basketball team, but another slow start against UC San Diego proved to just barely be too much to overcome.

“Tough loss for us tonight,” Wahine head coach Laura Beeman said. “There’s lot of frustration, a lot of hurt in that locker room. Which in a way is very good. You want it to hurt when you lose, particularly when we’ve been playing so well.”

Daejah Phillips led Hawaii with 24 points, 21 of which came in the second half. She scored 14 points in the final frame to lead the Wahine on a frantic comeback bid that came up a bucket short as the Tritons swept the season series with a 62-60 win on Thursday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

“They run their cuts really hard,” Beeman said of Hawaii’s troubles against UC San Diego. “They are very, very quick getting to the baskets. The matchups are a little bit difficult for us. We have a tendency to lose shooters at times.”

UC San Diego (10-13, 7-7 Big West) took the first lead of the game on Julia Macabuhay’s mid-range jumper, turning it into a quick 7-0 run to start the contest. Triples from Kelsie Imai and Nae Nae Calhoun finally opened the scoring for the Wahine (12-9, 8-3) after three scoreless minutes, cutting the deficit to just three points, despite a 2-for-8 shooting start for UH. The shooting woes continued, as the Wahine would only manage a pair of free throws the rest of the first quarter.

The Tritons capitalized on Hawaii’s troubles, extending their lead to a dozen on 9-for-12 first-quarter shooting. The ‘Bows, meanwhile, missed their next seven shots after Calhoun’s triple, finishing at 2-for-15 for a shooting percentage of 13% after a quarter played.

With improved ball movement, momentum looked to be swinging to start the second quarter. Imai converted an and-1 opportunity to cut the UCSD lead to single digits, and Phillips’ three cut the ‘Bows deficit to 20-14, the smallest margin since the game’s opening minutes.

“Ball movement is a point of emphasis all the time in our offense, it has to be,” Beeman said.

The renewed focus on passing affected the UH offense in other ways however, as several Wahine players passed up on 3’s, with space around them, in search of passing lanes.

“We never tell a shooter, if they are shot ready, to pass up a shot. Everyone on this team has a green light if they are ready to shoot the ball. They have to be ready to shoot the ball,” Beeman said. “Just because someone has space doesn’t mean it is a good shot. A lot of people say ‘why aren’t you letting them shoot?’ No, we let them shoot. They have to be ready. If they’re not ready physically or mentally, then they need to attack the paint. They need to reverse the ball and we need to get it going again. Eventually the defense will break down. We were also getting really, really hard closeouts. They were collapsing on drivers, closing out hard, and we weren’t doing a good job of reading that closeout, whether we should once again attack or take that shot.”

UC San Diego would go on to push the lead to 15 with three unanswered buckets and a pair of free throws.

Hawaii found itself in familiar territory, trailing by double digits entering the final frame. Aware of the Wahine’s penchant for late-game comebacks, the Tritons managed to keep Hawaii at arm’s length throughout the third quarter and well into the fourth. But you can only keep the inevitable bottled in for so long.

A smothering defensive press led to Wahine buckets on the other end. With half a quarter left to play, the comeback was on. Phillips scored on a pair of layups, including an and-1 to cut the gap to six. Davies’ triple made it a one-possession game.

“I just knew my team needed me. And I knew I needed to go get a bucket,” Phillips said of her fourth-quarter success. “I saw the open spots, saw the open gaps and took it. Started rebounding more, and just doing what my team needed.”

From that point on, the lead always seemed to be one step out of reach, as each Wahine bucket was matched in turn by one from the Tritons. Hawaii finally tied the game up on two Phillips free throws and Imai’s layup, but Macabuhay’s bucket with a second remaining would seal the game.

More than half of Macabuhay’s team-best 20 points came in the final quarter. She knocked down four of her squad’s six makes in the final quarter, adding a pair from the free-throw line for 11 fourth-quarter points.

The ‘Bows had one last chance for a miracle comeback. A play was drawn up for Phillips, but Big West leading scorer Amy Atwell, who was held in check for just four points on 1-for-9 shooting, threw the inbounds pass with 1.6 seconds remaining to a Triton defender.

“It wasn’t a great pass,” Beeman said. “I think Daejah’s defender broke a little bit harder than Daejah expected. But it wasn’t a great pass. 1.6 seconds left though, it’s tough. You want a shot at the basket. I wish we would have had a shot. But it was designed, obviously except for the turnover, [the play] was designed that way.”

With the loss, Hawaii drops to second place in the Big West standings. The ‘Bows will have a chance to reclaim their crown Saturday when they host new leader UC Irvine at 3:30 p.m.

“Bottom line, we have to recalibrate and get ready for Saturday,” Beeman said. “We have a very good team, and it’s one (vs.) two again Saturday night.”