It didn’t take much on offense for the Hawaii women’s basketball team to get back into the win column.
The Rainbow Wahine held Arkansas-Pine Bluff to a record-low 15 points against a Division I opponent in a 56-15 thumping of the Golden Lions on Monday night.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 777 watched a one-sided victory that wasn’t all good news for the home team.
Senior guard Kelsie Imai went down early in the fourth quarter and was in tears as trainers tended to her right hip area.
UH was already playing without senior guard Daejah Phillips, who didn’t suit up and missed her first game of the season, and freshman Danijela Kujovic, who was on crutches and in a boot.
Imai eventually got up and walked off under her own power.
Roughly two minutes later, sophomore guard Jovi Lefotu went down near the same area as Imai and had to be helped off the court.
Lefotu missed all of last season returning from an ACL injury suffered two seasons ago.
“Both of the girls said it was pretty slippery on that side of the floor, so I don’t know what that was about,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “Kelsie is a pitbull, so when she goes down and doesn’t get up you know it’s something a little bit significant, and Jovi … we’ve got to do a blessing on her body.”
Beeman also said center Jacque David will be a medical DQ for injury reasons, ending her UH career.
While the injuries continue to mount, Hawaii took care of business on the court against an Arkansas-Pine Bluff team that suited up eight players.
Brooklyn Rewers scored a season-high 13 points off the bench and senior guard Lily Wahinekapu added 11 points for UH. Wahinekapu’s 3-pointer off an assist from Rewers was the only made shot out of a combined 23 attempts from both teams to start the game.
Hawaii led 21-9 at halftime and outscored Arkansas-Pine Bluff 25-0 in the third quarter to take a 37-point lead into the final quarter.
Rewers hit all three of her 3-point attempts and had 11 of her 13 points in the quarter, outscoring the entire Golden Lions team by herself up to that point.
“I think upping our communication really helps us carry energy over to offense because we feel more connected,” said Rewers, who equaled her 3-pointers made so far this season. “That way we’re in control of the tempo too, so with our offense we’re in more rhythm and in sync.”
The Rainbow Wahine and Golden Lions were a combined 1-for-23 from the field before a MeiLani McBee 3-pointers doubled UH’s lead midway through the first quarter.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff nearly went the whole quarter without scoring, finishing 1-for-14 from the field on Ashley Rojas’ jumper with 17 seconds remaining.
UH increased the lead to 21-9 at the half, holding the Golden Lions to 11.1% shooting (3-for-27) from the field and 7.7% (1-for-13) from 3.
Hawaii shot 27.6% (8-for-29) from the field with 19 of its 29 shot attempts coming from behind the 3-point line.
“In the first half the shots were open, but they were coming in a different spot from our offense,” Beeman said. “They weren’t coming from inside out. They were kind of coming from around the perimeter — a lot of time on the shot clock still. In the second half, particularly the third quarter, the ball was in the paint getting kicked out making closeouts a lot further. We really work the paint touches.”
Hawaii (6-3) rebounded from consecutive losses to finish its opening homestand of the season 5-2.
UH will play in the San Diego Classic against Clemson on Friday and vs. host San Diego State on Saturday to close out its nonconference schedule.
The margin of victory was the 10th largest in program history and the highest since a 44-point win over Detroit on Dec. 18, 2000.
HAWAII 56,
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 15
GOLDEN LIONS (2-7)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Byard 27:26 1-5 0-0 6 0 2 2
Boyd 29;14 0-4 0-0 4 0 1 0
Marshall 30:35 0-2 0-0 5 0 2 0
Pelly 15:25 0-3 0-0 1 1 0 0
Allen 33:48 1-17 0-0 2 0 0 2
Jennings 18:15 2-3 0-0 2 0 0 5
Roberts 26:5 1-8 0-0 5 1 3 2
Rojas 18:22 1-13 2-2 5 0 1 4
TEAM 9
TOTALS 200 6-55 2-2 39 2 9 15
RAINBOW WAHINE (6-3)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Perez 18:51 3-7 0-0 4 0 0 7
Tamilo 18:23 2-5 2-2 7 0 1 6
Wahinekapu
25:29 4-10 0-0 2 3 0 11
Lefotu 17:36 3-5 0-2 3 3 1 7
McBee 22:04 2-7 1-2 5 0 1 7
Imai 14:50 0-2 2-2 6 4 1 2
Rewers 15:23 5-8 0-0 8 1 0 13
Peacock 11:53 0-3 0-0 2 2 1 0
Moors 18:26 0-2 0-2 3 2 0 0
Uhila 18:49 0-4 0-0 6 1 0 0
Filemu 15:00 1-6 0-0 2 0 0 3
Birdsong 3:16 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
TEAM 3
TOTALS 200 20-59 5-10 52 16 18 56
Key — min: minutes played; fg-a: field goals
made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; a: assists; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points.
Score By Period
UAPB 2 7 0 6 – 15
Hawaii 9 12 25 10 – 56
3-point goals — Arkansas-Pine Bluff 1-24
(Boyd 0-1, Marshall 0-1, Pelly 0-2, Allen
0-5, Jennings 1-2, Roberts 0-4, Rojas 0-9);
Hawaii 11-34 (Perez 1-4, Wahinekapu 3-7,
Lefotu 1-1, McBee 2-6, Imai 0-2, Rewers
3-3, Peacock 0-3, Moors 0-1, ‘Uhila 0-2, Eilemu 1-5). Steals — Arkansas-Pine Bluff 8
(Allen 2, Jennings 2, Byard, Boyd, Roberts,
Rojas); Hawaii 8 (‘Uhila 3, Wahinekapu 2,
Perez, Moors, Filemu). Blocked shots —
Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0; Hawaii 5 (Rewers 2,
Perez, Tamilo, Lefotu. Turnovers — Arkansas-Pine Bluff 19 (Allen 5, Pelly 3, Jennings
3, Marshall 2, Roberts 2, Byard, Boyd, Rojas, Team); Hawaii 14 (Tamilo 3, Moors 3,
Imai 2, Rewers 2, ‘Uhila 2, Wahinekapu,
Lefotu). Technical fouls — none. Officials
— Deon Lewis, Josh Batin, Starr Rivera. A —
777.
