The Hawaii women’s basketball team avoided the slow start that has plagued it multiple times this season.
But an 8-0 run to begin Thursday’s first-round game in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament was ultimately wasted as the Rainbow Wahine saw their season come to an end in a 63-46 loss to UNLV at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.
Ten days after the team departed Honolulu looking to win a conference championship, Hawaii played the fewest games it was guaranteed, following a defeat in the Big West Conference semifinals with an early exit from a postseason tournament.
UH hasn’t won a postseason tournament game since 2001 and is 0-9 under head coach Laura Beeman.
“This team has never stopped playing. We’ve had games when we’re up, we’ve had games when we’re down, but regardless, we don’t stop playing,” Beeman said. “That’s a testament to the seniors, that’s a testament to the championships we’ve won. What you tell a locker room like that is sit in your disappointment for a few minutes, but man, celebrate what you’ve done. Particularly this senior group has done something incredibly, incredibly special.”
An entrant in the 32-team WBIT field by virtue of winning the Big West regular season, Hawaii finishes the season 22-10 with four losses in its last six games.
It has reached four consecutive postseasons, playing in the NCAA Tournament twice and WBIT twice.
Senior guard Lily Wahinekapu, in her final game in a UH uniform, scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter as she attempted to carry her team on her back.
It wasn’t enough to overcome another tough offensive outing in which UH matched a season low in scoring with 46 points.
“Third quarter was rough. We could not score the ball,” Beeman said. “Gave up some boards, gave up some big shots.”
UH was outscored in all four quarters, with the biggest margin coming in a 17-9 run by the Rebels after halftime.
Meadow Roland scored a team-high 16 points off the bench for UNLV (26-7), which improved to 18-2 at home this season.
Hawaii was outrebounded 47-26 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds. It only attempted two free throws.
“Our goal was to come out and start the game a lot stronger than we did in the semifinals in the Big West,” Beeman said. “We wanted to compete … and they did. I think with the length that UNLV has, the speed, you have very, very small windows to get the ball in to post players. With the speed and length of UNLV, those windows are really, really small.”
Brooklyn Rewers added 10 points off the bench for UH, which played 10 players. Six of them managed to score and only Wahinekapu and Rewers had more than six points.
Imani Perez, who scored the game’s first basket on a 3, finished with five points and five rebounds in 35 minutes.
Senior MeiLani McBee, UH’s career leader in 3-pointers made, was held without a point in 29 minutes, shooting 0-for-5 from 3.
Imai, whose 3-pointer put UH ahead 8-0 less than three minutes into the game, ended up with five points and three rebounds before fouling out.
Wahinekapu finished the game shooting 8-for-17 from the field with three steals, three rebounds and two assists.
“Coach B gave me the opportunity to come home and play in front of my family and my friends and play for this team, and this team has allowed me to be the player I am today,” Wahinekapu said. “I just had a really great time playing at the University of Hawaii.”
UH started the year 5-2, with its only losses coming against Portland, which won a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title, and Big Ten champion UCLA, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Rainbow Wahine played the entire season without Jacque David, who had to medically retire, and then lost Daejah Phillips, the reigning Big West Sixth Player of the Year, who was removed from the active roster in January for personal reasons.
Both players played critical roles for UH in last season’s run to the BWC regular-season title.
“We’ve had a lot of adversity. We started the season with a very different roster than what we ended with, and we were able to overcome that adversity,” Beeman said. “These guys were able to pull together and go on an amazing 14-game winning streak. They have played for our state, and if you don’t live in a state where you are the only Division I team and you play for that state, understanding that statement is really hard. Incredible honored and very proud to be the head coach of this program.”
UNLV 63, HAWAII 46
RAINBOW WAHINE (22-10)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
3 Wahinekapu 27 8-17 2-7 0-1 1-2 3 2 2 4 0 3 18
12 Perez 35 2-5 1-4 0-0 3-0 3 0 1 1 2 0 5
1 Imai 21 2-6 1-2 0-0 0-3 3 5 1 0 0 0 5
24 Tamilo 20 1-4 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 1 0 0 2 0 2
23 McBee 29 0-5 0-5 0-0 0-3 3 3 1 0 0 2 0
14 Rewers 24 4-7 1-2 1-1 1-3 4 1 1 0 0 1 10
02 ‘Uhila 18 2-6 2-3 0-0 0-1 1 0 0 1 0 1 6
04 Lefotu 14 0-6 0-1 0-0 1-1 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
22 Peacock 10 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 0 1 1 0 0 0
11 Filemu 2 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 0-3 3 1
Totals 200 19-58 7-26 1-2 6-20 26 12 7 9 4 7 46
Percentages 32.8 26.9 50.0
REBELS (26-7)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
33 Kimpson 30 5-11 2-5 2-2 0-2 2 1 3 0 0 0 14
3 Jackson 31 2-7 0-3 4-4 0-6 6 0 4 2 0 1 8
25 Alexander 29 3-8 0-3 0-0 3-3 6 0 0 1 0 1 6
21 Brackens 28 2-6 1-2 0-0 4-8 12 1 1 3 0 0 5
44 Brown 28 2-6 0-3 0-0 1-8 9 1 4 1 1 0 4
32 Roland 24 7-13 1-4 1-2 2-1 3 1 0 2 2 0 16
14 Spencer 19 3-6 2-5 2-2 0-2 2 0 1 1 0 0 10
20 James 11 0-1 0-1 0-0 1-1 2 0 1 0 0 1 0
TEAM 2-3 5 1
Totals 200 24-58 6-26 9-10 13-34 47 4 14 11 3 3 63
Percentages 41.4 23.1 90.0
Score By Period
Hawaii 10 10 9 17 – 46
UNLV 12 15 17 19 – 63
Technical fouls — none. Officials — Danielle Johnson, Rochelle Bennett, Kathleen Cassidy. A — 800.
