Lily Wahinekapu understands as long as she’s confident, the confidence from her head coach will never waver.
The Hawaii junior guard snapped an 0-for-8 drought with a layup and followed with a 3-pointer and another basket as part of an 11-2 closing run to help the Rainbow Wahine hold off UC San Diego 64-52 on Saturday night.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center season-high crowd of 1,247 came alive as the pesky Tritons (7-11, 3-4 Big West) closed to 53-50 on two free throws by Sumayah Sugapong after trailing by as many as 12 early in the fourth quarter,.
Hawaii scored the next 10 points, with Wahinekapu accounting for seven and Daejah Phillips putting the game away with an and-1 layup with 1:48 to go.
Wahinekapu scored Hawaii’s first two baskets of the game and then didn’t make a field goal until the closing run that gave UH its first home win in three meetings against UCSD.
“Coach (Laura Beeman) always finds the best in people,” Wahinekapu said. “You might be down on yourself, but she always finds something to compliment you on, and it brings your confidence back up. Shots weren’t really going in in the beginning, but Coach B made sure my technique was there and to stay positive and keep shooting.”
Wahinekapu’s layup off a steal by MeiLani McBee ended the scoring run with UH ahead 63-50 with 1:24 left.
She finished with a game-high 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes and Phillips added 15 points off the bench.
Phillips flexed after getting fouled on the layup that finally put a pesky Tritons team away.
“It was the timeout and we just said we were OK,” Phillips said. “Get back to being aggressive and I think that’s what it was.”
Hawaii (9-7, 6-1) took over sole possession of first place in the Big West with UC Santa Barbara’s loss to Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
UH hits the road next week for two games, beginning Thursday at the Gauchos.
“We lost to (UCSD) the last two here, so there was a thought process going into this game that we didn’t want it to be a third time,” Beeman said. “We knew they weren’t going away. We just had to kind of put our will upon them and say tonight we are going to be better than you.”
Hawaii held the Tritons to 15 percent shooting (2-for-13) from 3-point range, but struggled with backup center Damilola Sule, who tied Sugapong with a team-high 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting in the key.
Sule, who also had seven rebounds, took advantage of Hawaii playing without center Brooklyn Rewers for the second straight game.
Rewers, who was wearing a boot on her right foot on the UH bench, leads the team in rebounding at 6.0 per game.
“This is a marathon and not a race, and the mental and physical health and safety of these kids is No. 1,” Beeman said. “No. 2, it’s a marathon and we want to be healthy and where we’re supposed to be at the end.”
Hawaii finished with a season-low eight turnovers.
The Rainbow Wahine raced out to a 14-5 lead to end the first quarter and never trailed.
A Phillips drive and dish to Jacque David for a layup put UH ahead 19-5 early in the second quarter and prompted a UC San Diego timeout.
Two made free throws by Jade Peacock, one of eight UH players to score in the first half, gave Hawaii its largest lead at 28-13 with 2:21 to go before halftime.
Both teams shot a similar percentage in the first half, but UH had a six-point advantage at the free-throw line and shot 38 percent (5-for-13) from 3 while the Tritons were 1-for-7 as Hawaii led 31-19 at the break.
After an Imani Perez putback to start the second half, Hawaii gave up seven quick points and Beeman called a quick timeout.
Parker Montgomery’s pull-up jumper made it a 9-0 run that ended on a driving layup by Imai.
Hawaii returned the favor with an 8-0 run and led 47-38 at the end of the third quarter after a big 3 from the left wing by Ashley Thoms.
Sule, who dominated the paint all game, got the Tritons within five at 53-48 in the fourth quarter with 5:56 to go. Sugapong got two free throws to drop out of the media timeout to cut the lead to three before Hawaii’s closing run.
