The Hawaii women’s basketball team fell into an early hole in Big West play with four key rotation players out to start the new year.
UC Santa Barbara had five players score in double figures and never let the Rainbow Wahine get all the way back into the game after a slow start in a 72-62 victory on Thursday night at the Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Cayla Williams scored a career-high 14 points and Jessica Grant and Zoe Borter added 12 points apiece for the Gauchos (8-5, 2-1 Big West), who have won five straight home games against the Rainbow Wahine (6-6, 0-2).
Hawaii has lost five of its past six games after starting the season 5-1.
Hawaii senior Lily Wahinekapu scored a game-high 17 points and played 37 minutes with guards Kelsie Imai and Jovi Lefotu, wing Danijela Kujovic and forward Imani Perez all unable to play.
Daejah Phillips added 13 points and seven rebounds and Mia ‘Uhila finished with 12 points and three rebounds.
“We’re down a few people that make a difference on both sides of the ball, and so I will start there. It depletes us a little bit with rotations and depth in certain positions,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “With all of that said, we kept bringing that game within six, eight, nine, and they would open it up when we would blow an assignment on defense.”
Hawaii was outrebounded 33-24 and gave up eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone.
The Gauchos had more offensive rebounds (10) than Hawaii had total rebounds (nine) at halftime, when it led 37-27.
Hawaii shot 23% (3-for-13) from the 3-point line and had just four assists.
“It’s a lack of focus. We’re not hitting bodies, we’re ball watching, and when you ball watch you’re going to get beat,” Beeman said about the rebounding issues. “It takes us a while to figure out we’ve got to hit bodies and not ball watch. We continue to have slow starts and I don’t know what it is.”
Hawaii held UC Santa Barbara’s Alyssa Marin, the Big West’s leading scorer at 16.7 points per game, to 10 points on 1-for-7 shooting. She passed the 1,000-point mark on her only field-goal make but was 8-for-8 from the line.
“We didn’t follow the game plan,” Beeman said. “We allowed Marin to go to the free-throw line when we said that was the game plan of what she was going to do.”
The Gauchos used eight offensive rebounds that led to eight points to take an 18-13 lead after the first quarter.
With three guards out, Wahinekapu picked up the pace offensively with 11 points in the first half. She had a full-court break-away layup to end the half, but the clock struck zero just before she could get off a layup to try to pull UH within single digits.
With Ritorya Tamilo and Phillips both in foul trouble with two apiece, UH clamped down on defense and had the deficit down to six at 29-23 before Skylar Burke hit a wide-open 3 from the top of the arc.
Anya Choice followed with a layup off a UH turnover to extend the lead back to double digits.
Hawaii used nine players in the first half, with Wahinekapu and Phillips combining to shoot 6-for-6 from the field. The rest of the team was 3-for-13 (23.1%).
A Grant 3-pointer and a jumper by Borter to start the second half for UCSB extended the lead to 15 at 42-27.
UH again chipped away at the lead, using a half-court press to slow down the Gauchos’ ability to get into their half-court offense.
Tamilo made two free throws to cut the deficit to eight, but again, UH gave up an open 3 to Williams to stretch the lead back to double digits.
Williams hit another 3 just over a minute later with 32 seconds remaining and the Gauchos took a 53-41 lead into the final 10 minutes.
Williams converted a 3-point play and Grant followed with a 3 to give the Gauchos their largest lead at 59-43 with 7:07 remaining.
“That was a fun one. This team is befuddling. They kind of leave me speechless sometimes,” first-year UC Santa Barbara coach Renee Jimenez said in an ESPN postgame interview. “When we play with great intensity, we are really good. I’m really proud of this group for their resiliency and obviously Hawaii is a really good team. This is a huge win for our team. Our kids know they can play with anybody in the Big West.
Hawaii whittled the lead to eight in the final minute, but the deficit was too much to overcome.
UH will finish the road trip on Saturday at Cal Poly at 11 a.m.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Davis 3 0 1.000 — 9 4
Long Beach St. 3 0 1.000 — 7 5
UC Irvine 2 0 1.000 1
2 8 4
UC Riverside 2 1 .667 1 6 7
UCSB 2 1 .667 1 8 5
UC San Diego 1 1 .500 11
2 5 9
Cal Poly 1 2 .333 2 6 7
CS Northridge 1 2 .333 2 3 9
Hawaii 0 2 .000 21
2 6 6
CS Fullerton 0 3 .000 3 2 11
CS Bakersfield 0 3 .000 3 0 13
Thursday
UC Santa Barbara 72, Hawaii 62
Long Beach State 63, UC Riverside 48
UC Davis 81, Cal State Bakersfield 37
UC Irvine 60, Cal Poly 38
CS Northridge 79, CSFullerton 76, OT
Saturday
Hawaii at Cal Poly, 11 a.m.
Cal State Fullerton at UC San Diego
Cal State Northridge at UC Davis
Cal State Bakersfield at Long Beach State
UC Irvine at UC Riverside
UC SANTA BARBARA 72, HAWAII 62
RAINBOW WAHINE (6-6, 0-2)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Wahinekapu 37 6-11 4-4 3 3 2 17
Phillips 30 5-7 3-3 7 1 3 13
Peacock 17 0-6 0-0 0 0 2 0
McBee 23 1-2 0-0 0 0 2 3
Tamilo 15 2-3 2-2 3 0 2 6
‘Uhila 28 3-7 6-7 3 0 1 12
Moors 21 1-2 2-2 1 0 2 4
Filemu 6 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2
Rewers 24 1-7 2-4 2 0 4 5
TEAM 5
TOTALS 200 20-46 19-22 24 4 18 62
GAUCHOS (8-5, 2-1)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Borter 34 5-11 2-2 7 3 0 12
Marin 22 1-7 8-8 2 3 3 10
Choice 25 2-4 3-4 1 0 4 7
Rockwood 12 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0
Burke 35 3-8 2-2 9 3 3 10
Bradley 19 1-4 2-2 1 1 3 4
Williams 21 4-7 3-5 4 1 3 14
Goed 3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Pietsch 8 1-2 0-0 1 1 0 3
Grant 21 4-7 0-0 0 1 2 12
TEAM 6
TOTALS 200 21-51 20-23 33 13 19 72
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
Hawaii 13 14 14 21 – 62
UCSB 18 19 16 19 – 72
3-point goals — Hawaii 3-13 (McBee 1-2,
Wahinekapu 1-4, Rewers 1-4, Peacock
0-2, Moors 0-1). UC Santa Barbara 10-26
(Grant 4-7, Williams 3-4, Burke 2-6, Pietsch
1-2, Borter 0-3, Marin 0-4). Steals — Hawaii 4 (Moors, Phillips, Tamilo, Wahinekapu). UC Santa Barbara 3 (Bradley,
Choice, Marin). Blocked shots — Hawaii 4
(Moors, Peacock, Phillips, Tamilo). UC
Santa Barbara 4 (Williams 2, Burke, Marin).
Turnovers — Hawaii 8 (Wahinekapu 3,
McBee 2, Phillips, Tamilo, ‘Uhila).
UC Santa Barbara 11 (Marin 4, Burke 3,
Choice, Pietsch, Rockwood, Team). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Michael
Price, Corey Long, Juchell Wardlow. A —
NA.
