In a season filled with impressive defensive performances, the first three quarters of Saturday’s game against UC San Diego stood out as arguably the Hawaii women’s basketball team’s best yet.
The Rainbow Wahine held the Tritons to 24.3% shooting (17-for-70) from the field and MeiLani McBee’s 11-point scoring run in the second quarter that included her 200th career 3-pointer led Hawaii to a 49-44 victory over UCSD.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,140 saw the first-place Rainbow Wahine run their winning streak to 14 games, matching the sixth longest in program history.
Hawaii held the Tritons (14-14, 10-6), the Big West’s third-leading scoring team at 63.9 points per game, to 20 points below their average. UCSD had 23 points at the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter and missed 45 of its first 54 shots from the floor.
“Our defense is on point right now,” said Hawaii coach Laura Beeman, who locked up her fourth 20-win season in her UH tenure. “We’ve absolutely made a commitment to knowing what we need to do on the defensive side of the ball.”
Sumayah Sugapong, the Tritons’ leading scorer at 14.4 points per game, finished with 12 points and six turnovers on 5-for-18 shooting before fouling out with less than two minutes remaining.
UCSD shot 10% (3-for-30) from the 3-point line.
The Tritons had won four of five since losing to Hawaii by two points in overtime in La Jolla, Calif. It was the closest any team has come to beating the Rainbow Wahine during their winning streak.
“I would say being in gaps was a big thing for us,” forward Imani Perez said. “I think we did a lot better with running people off of the line. That kind of limited their shots and helped our defense.”
Despite all of that, UCSD closed to within six points at 44-38 with 2:18 remaining on a Parker Montgomery jumper in the paint off a fast break.
A Hawaii turnover gave UCSD a look at a 3 with less than two minutes remaining to make it a one-possession game, but the shot did not fall.
UH committed 22 turnovers and gave up 14 offensive rebounds, allowing the Tritons to get off 23 more shot attempts.
Hawaii also was just 7-for-18 from the free-throw line.
“It’s working for us right now because our defense is holding,” Beeman said. “You get a team, though, that gets hot, that becomes really scary. We’re just leaving too many points off the floor and off the board by those turnovers and by not hitting our free throws.”
Lily Wahinekapu finished with a game-high 13 points and Kelsie Imai added seven points, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals. She had more assists than the entire UCSD team.
“If it’s the night for me to go and take somebody to the rim, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Imai said. “If I need to be a defensive stopper, then that’s what I’ll do, and obviously I am always looking for my teammates.”
The Tritons whittled down an early 8-3 deficit to 11-9 at the end of the first quarter by holding Hawaii without a field goal for the final 6 minutes, 59 seconds.
Gracie Gallegos had seven of the Tritons’ nine points and made as many field goals as all of UH, which shot 3-for-10 from the field in the opening 10 minutes.
McBee ended an eight-minute field-goal drought with a right-corner 3 that hit the front of the rim and bounced straight up and in to push UH’s advantage to 14-9.
McBee wound up with eight straight points for Hawaii after splashing a second 3 from the right wing and then scoring a layup on a backdoor cut and find from Ritorya Tamilo for a 19-11 lead.
Her 200th career 3-pointer came from the top of the key at the 3:22 mark to give Hawaii its first lead of double digits at 24-14.
UCSD, which entered the game leading the conference and 14th overall in NCAA Division I in steals, had nine in the first half and forced 14 turnovers, yet still trailed 26-19.
Wahinekapu banked a 3 from in front of the Hawaii bench to close a 12-4 third quarter for the Rainbow Wahine and push the lead to 15.
UCSD made only two field goals in the third quarter and was shooting 18% (9-for-50) from the floor with 15 fewer points despite attempting 13 more shots.
The Tritons’ 21 points in the fourth quarter nearly doubled their output in the first three quarters.
Hawaii, which leads second-place UC Irvine by two games and holds the tiebreaker with four games remaining, will set out for its final regular-season road trip starting Thursday at UC Riverside.
