After opening the season at No. 9 Stanford, the Hawaii women’s basketball team will close out its nonconference schedule with an even bigger challenge.
The Rainbow Wahine will end a 17-day layoff between games Thursday in Pauley Pavilion against No. 2 UCLA, which ranks seventh in the country with an average of 91.1 points per game and eighth in scoring margin at 29.6 ppg.
The Bruins (10-0) are the third Pac-12 team Hawaii (3-5) will play in its first nines game of the season after losing to the Cardinal and to Washington.
Hawaii’s only game since the loss to the Huskies on Nov. 26 was a 73-47 win against San Jose State on Dec. 3.
Hawaii coach Laura Beeman described the win over the Spartans as “fun.” She hopes the team will feel the same way against the Bruins playing in one of the most famous arenas in the country.
“The experience at UCLA is going to be one that I hope these girls don’t forget,” Beeman said Monday. “You don’t play the No. 2 team in the country all the time in a place that has such history. I hope they savor the moment. We know that it’s going to be a very challenging game.”
Hawaii will have to keep pace offensively with the Bruins, who are led by center Lauren Betts, who averages a team-high 17 points and 9.4 rebounds and leads the NCAA Division I in field-goal shooting percentage at 76.8 percent.
Three players scored in double figures for Hawaii in the win over the Spartans in which UH finished with its highest scoring output of the season.
Guard Daejah Phillips had 17 points off the bench to lead the way and Hawaii also had two players finish with nine points.
Junior guard MeiLani McBee nailed two of Hawaii’s seven 3-pointers and leads the team with 17 made 3s this season while shooting 39.5 percent from behind the arc.
“We’ve just got to stick together,” McBee said of the matchup with the Bruins. “They’ve got a good group of girls and I think as long as we stay together and fight back we’ll have a good chance.”
McBee, who needs three 3-pointers to move into sixth place on the school’s career list behind Nani Cockett, is one of only two UH players to start all eight games this season.
“The area that I’m most impressed about and super proud about is her ability to want to be a leader,” Beeman said of McBee. “I think she’s trying to kind of be the glue. Even though she’s a lights-out shooter, she’s still a role player, and now we’re asking her to grow that role into a little more of an impact player, and that’s hard to do. She’s embraced that challenge of being more than just a role player.”
This will be Hawaii’s final game before starting Big West Conference play next week at Cal State Fullerton.
UH’s nine nonconference opponents have a combined record of 62-31 entering the week, with its three Pac-12 opponents a combined 30-1.
UCLA, which beat No. 13 Ohio State on Monday, is 8-1 all-time against UH and 6-0 at home with an average margin of victory of 29.1 points.
“We know that UCLA is a monster. We need to go in there with the right mentality,” Beeman said. “My goal in coaching them and talking to them is we need to continue to have confidence. We need to have fun in this game and really just embrace this opportunity and get ourselves ready for conference, because that’s really when it really matters.”
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Rainbow Wahine Basketball
Hawaii (3-5) at No. 2 UCLA (10-0)
>> Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles
>> When: Thursday, 11 a.m.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: None
