The schedule doesn’t allow much time for recovery, physical or otherwise.
The emotion was apparent after Hawaii’s bid to knock off Big West women’s basketball leader Long Beach State came up a point shy on Saturday night.
The Rainbow Wahine had a walk-through scheduled for Sunday to cool the sting of an opportunity that slipped away with two Beach free throws with 1.7 seconds left and move forward to this afternoon’s matchup with Cal State Bakersfield.
“Right now it’s all about Bakersfield and recovery from the game and being ready to win a ballgame on Monday,” UH coach Laura Beeman said to close the postgame press conference on Saturday.
The Rainbow Wahine (11-13, 9-6 Big West) will face the Roadrunners (6-17, 3-12) in a 2 p.m. Presidents’ Day matinee at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
UH enters today’s game tied with UC San Diego for fourth place in the Big West standings, now four games behind Long Beach State with five games left in the regular season. CSU Bakersfield enters today’s game having dropped four straight and coming off a 51-42 loss at home to Cal Poly last Wednesday.
UH and CSUB met on Jan. 28 at the Icardo Center in Bakersfield, Calif., with the Rainbow Wahine in need of a bounce-back following a 72-69 loss at UC Santa Barbara. They saw a 20-point third-quarter lead evaporate in a 72-69 loss to the Gauchos and also lost guard Jovi Lefotu to a season-ending injury in the final seconds.
CSUB went on a 16-0 run in the first quarter and built a 13-point lead. UH tightened its defense and allowed just 15 points in the second half to pull out a 51-47 win.
On Saturday, the Wahine limited Long Beach State to its lowest point total of the season and held a 47-44 lead with less than a minute left. LBSU closed to within a point and had possession with 10 seconds left following a UH shot-clock violation. LBSU guard Courtney Murphy drew a foul and hit two free throws with 1.7 seconds left to provide the final margin.
The loss came on a night when guard Lily Wahinekapu scored a UH career high 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including a 5-for-10 showing from 3-point range. But the Wahine struggled to find open looks throughout the duel and were hampered by 23 turnovers, their third highest total of the season, against an aggressive LBSU defense.
“We are a very good team, they’re just better than us right now,” Beeman said. “If we do some things to take care of some turnovers, shoot the ball when we’re open, and not blow assignments here and there on defense, we have a great opportunity to do very well in the (Big West) tournament.
“We’re going to continue to get better, that’s something that’s gonna happen. These guys want to get better as a team we want to grow and get better.”
Since going scoreless in a loss at LBSU on Jan. 14, Wahinekapu has scored in double figures in UH’s last 10 games and leads the Wahine with 11.4 points per game.
UH is in the midst of a stretch of four games in the span of a week, although the status of final game of the run is a bit clouded. After finishing their penultimate homestand today, the Wahine play at UC Riverside on Thursday and are scheduled to end the week at UC Irvine. However, UC Irvine canceled its games at UC Davis and Cal Poly, originally scheduled for Saturday and today, due to the Anteaters not having enough available players.
The games were declared a no-contest and UC Irvine (20-5), second in the Big West at 12-2, is scheduled to face UC San Diego on Thursday in La Jolla, Calif., and UH on Saturday at the Bren Events Center.
Big West women’s basketball
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
CSU Bakersfield (6-17, 3-12) vs. Hawaii (11-13, 9-6)
>> When: Today, 2 p.m.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: 1500-AM
