With the Big West Conference schedule getting noticeably tougher beginning Thursday night, so too was the Hawaii women’s basketball team.
The Rainbow Wahine took some hard falls to the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center court in the fourth quarter but didn’t flinch in knocking off UC Davis 56-46 before a crowd of 871.
Brooklyn Rewers led all players in scoring with 12 points and Imani Perez and Lily Wahinekapu added 11 for Hawaii (12-6, 6-2), which extended its winning streak to a season-high six games.
Perez went 3-for-3 from the 3-point line and added nine rebounds and three steals and Rewers had five boards and a block in the final minute that led to two Wahinekapu free throws to seal a victory against the only Big West program that has a winning record against Laura Beeman in her UH tenure as head coach.
“I always think we’re the tougher team,” Beeman said. “They’re physical. We know we have to play physical and it definitely got chippy at times, but these guys aren’t afraid of getting chippy.”
Hawaii outrebounded the Aggies 43-28 and shot 77.8% (14-for-18) from the free-throw line.
UC Davis, which entered the game leading the conference in 3-point shooting percentage, finished 1-for-21 from behind the arc.
“These guys know their scouts. When we’re running people off the line and not allowing teams to get into a rhythm it makes a difference,” Beeman said. “The ability to run those guys off the line and rush their shots, not give them a complete look, I don’t know how many airballs they had, but they had more airballs than typical.”
The Rainbow Wahine jumped further up the conference standings with the win over the Aggies (12-7, 6-3), who eliminated UH in the semifinals of last year’s conference tournament in March.
UC Davis got within two points with less than three minutes to go on a Victoria Baker steal and layup, only to see UH answer with MeiLani McBee converting a three-point play on a back cut for a layup off of a feed from Perez.
McBee, who tied Amy Atwell for the program record with her 126th game played, added six points and eight rebounds.
Rewers, who played only seven minutes in the second half, still finished with her eighth double-figure scoring output in the past 10 games.
“I think (coming off the bench) lets me kind of read the game a little bit more and also kind of helps with my nerves a little bit,” Rewers said. ‘It alleviates some stress from me and lets me see how the flow of the game is going.”
Both teams were held to a single made basket in the opening five minutes, with leading scorers Wahinekapu for Hawaii and Tova Sabel for the Aggies opening the scoring.
A McBee jumper on the fast break off of a UCD turnover followed by a Perez 3-pointer 48 seconds later helped UH take an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Sabel missed an open layup early in the second quarter and committed her second foul going for her own rebound, forcing her to the bench with 9:26 remaining.
Hawaii capitalized with an 8-0 run in which Wahinekapu drilled a stepback 3-pointer and then fed her sister, Lefotu, for a 3 from the right wing to make it 22-10 and prompt the Aggies to call a timeout with 4:22 remaining in the first half.
Wahinekapu slapped hands with Lefotu running down the court and then the two did it again after the Aggies called timeout.
“That was so fun. That little run right there made me really happy and made me want to be in the moment more,” Wahinekapu said. “I’m probably going to cherish that moment.”
Sabel substituted into the game after the timeout and ended a scoring drought of more than four minutes for the Aggies with a jumper in the key after two Lefotu free throws pushed UH’s lead to 14.
Sabel converted a 3-point play to narrow the lead to single digits and the Aggies closed the half on a 9-0 run with Baker’s putback with two seconds left making it 26-21 at intermission.
Perez played the entire third quarter and scored eight of Hawaii’s 16 points with two 3-pointers and a putback with 20 seconds remaining to give UH a 42-34 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Sabel finished with a team-high 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting and 0-for-6 from deep.
Next up for Hawaii is defending champion UC Irvine on Saturday at 7 p.m.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 7 1 875 — 13 5
Long Beach St. 7 1 .875 — 11 6
Hawaii 6 2 .750 1 12 6
UC Davis 6 3 .667 2 12 7
UC San Diego 5 3 .625 2 9 11
UCSB 4 4 .500 3 10 8
UC Riverside 4 4 .500 3 8 10
Cal Poly 3 5 .375 4 8 10
CS Northridge 1 7 .125 6 3 14
CSU Bakersfield 1 7 .125 6 1 17
CS Fullerton 1 8 .111 61
2 3 16
Thursday
Hawaii 56, UC Davis 46
UC Irvine 56, UC Riverside 53
Long Beach State 88, CS Northridge 75
Cal State Fullerton 63, CS Bakersfield 58
UC San Diego 62, UC Santa Barbara 43
Saturday
UC Irvine at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Cal Poly at Long Beach State
UC San Diego at Cal State Northridge
Cal State Fullerton at UC Santa Barbara
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Riverside
HAWAII 56, UC DAVIS 46
AGGIES (12-7, 6-3)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
14 Sabel, 31 4-14 0-6 3-3 0-6 6 3 0 2 0 1 11
25 Norris 28 3-11 1-5 0-0 0-3 3 4 2 3 0 0 7
04 Epps 20 1-4 0-1 2-3 0-2 2 2 0 2 0 1 4
13 Burns 17 1-4 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 0 2 2 0 5 2
33 Harris 36 0-4 0-3 0-0 2-4 6 2 0 1 0 0 0
02 Bennett 20 3-5 0-2 4-5 0-0 0 2 0 2 0 0 10
23 Baker 19 4-6 0-1 0-2 1-0 1 2 0 3 0 3 8
05 Fitzgerald 12 2-5 0-2 0-0 1-2 3 0 0 0 0 0 4
41 Shine 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
09 Sussex 5 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 Glad 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
03 Kanagasabay 0+ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 2-2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 200 18-55 1-21 9-13 6-22 28 16 4 15 0 10 46
RAINBOW WAHINE (12-6, 6-2)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
12 Perez 36 4-7 3-3 0-1 1-8 9 1 1 2 0 3 11
03 Wahinekapu 33 3-8 1-3 4-4 0-2 2 3 2 2 0 1 11
24 Tamilo 22 3-7 0-0 1-2 2-3 5 0 0 3 0 1 7
23 McBee 26 2-5 0-2 2-3 2-6 8 3 1 2 0 0 6
22 Peacock 17 0-4 0-2 0-0 1-2 3 2 0 0 0 1 0
14 Rewers 18 4-9 1-3 3-4 1-4 5 1 0 2 1 1 12
04 Lefotu 20 2-8 1-3 4-4 1-2 3 2 0 2 0 0 9
02 ‘Uhila, 13 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 2 2 1 3 0 0 0
08 Moors 8 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
01 Imai, 7 0-3 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-4 5 0 0 2 0 0 0
Totals 200 18-52 6-17 14-18 11-32 43 14 5 20 1 7 56
Score By Period
UC Davis 8 13 13 12 – 46
Hawaii 11 15 16 14 – 56
Technical fouls — None. Officials — Pete Arceo, Juchell Wardlow, Sean Martin.
A — 1,652.
