Top-seeded Hawaii weathered a cold shooting performance and survived a scare from ninth-seed Cal State Bakersfield to grind out a 48-47 win in the quarterfinals of the Big West women’s basketball tournament today in Henderson, Nev.
UH guard Daejah Phillips scored on a drive to the basket with 1:12 left to give the Rainbow Wahine the lead and the Rainbow Wahine came up with two stops in the final 14 seconds to advance to Friday’s semifinal round at the Dollar Loan Center.
UH will face UC Riverside (14-10) at 10 a.m. on Friday. The Highlanders advanced after a 46-42 win over Santa Barbara.
Olivia Davies scored 11 points to lead a Hawaii offense that went 16-for-50 from the field and Phillips finished with nine. Phillips sparked UH early with seven points in the first quarter, but went scoreless until delivering the go-ahead basket late in the fourth quarter.
The Rainbow Wahine (18-9) advanced despite forward Amy Atwell, the Big West Player of the Year, being held to four points on 1-for-7 shooting.
“We just persevered,” Davies said on the ESPN+ broadcast. “I think we were really nervous, so battling through that nervous energy was a struggle, but we pulled it out so we can keep going and make up for it.”
>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Cal State Bakersfield
CSUB guard/forward Jayden Eggleston scored a game-high 18 points and center Vanessa Austin added 10 points and nine rebounds. Both came up empty in the Roadrunners’ final possessions as UH managed to hang on an reach the Big West semifinals for the seventh time in 10 years. CSUB ended the game 15-for-50 (30%) from the field.
“All the credit to Cal State Bakersfield, their game plan was amazing, they slowed us down, they kept the score low, they were aggressive with us,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “I’m glad we squeaked out of that and let’s hope we re-group and do some better things Friday because we’re going to need to.”
Both teams committed seven turnovers in a ragged first quarter. Phillips carried the UH offense early with seven points and going 3-for-4 from the field, starting with a 3-pointer from the left corner, and the Wahine led by as many as 10.
UH led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter and CSUB closed to 17-15 on a deep 3-pointer by Eggleston. UH shot 3-for-10 from the field in the second quarter while CSUB went 3-for-13 and the Wahine took a 24-19 lead into halftime.
With UH clinging to a 32-28 lead in the third quarter, guard Nae Nae Calhoun scored on drive then hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to nine with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
With UH leading 39-33, CSU Bakersfield opened the fourth quarter with a 12-1 run to take a the lead.
The Roadrunners closed to within a point Eggleston’s putback with 6:43 left and took a their first lead of the game when Austin scored on a layup in the paint with 5:51 left.
Andie Easley extended the CSUB run to 11-0 when her 3-pointer rattled in with 4:31 left.
Down 45-42, UH closed the gap on two free throws by Davies and regained the lead on two more by Jacque David.
Eggleston hit a jumper to make 47-46 and Phillips answered with a drive to the basket to give UH the lead again with 1:12 left.
Easley missed a 3-pointer and Davies grabbed the rebound. Davies drove into the lane and missed a pull-up jumper and CSUB secured the rebound and called a timeout with 14.5 seconds left.
Eggleston came up empty on a drive and after a review by the officials the Roadrunners were awarded possession with 8.7 seconds left.
Austin, working against David, came up short on a hook shot in the paint and time expired in the scramble for the rebound to give UH its sixth straight win and 11th in its last 12 games.
