Powered by production off the bench, Hawaii earned a breakthrough win to open the Rainbow Wahine Shootout on Friday.
UH forward Jacque David scored a career-high 17 points in a perfect shooting performance and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team got 32 points from its reserves in a 63-47 victory over Grambling State at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
UH entered the game at 0-4 for the first time since 2018 after falling to Lipscomb in overtime on Sunday and shot 45.5% from the field against Grambling State while distributing 16 assists on 25 field goals to halt the early-season skid.
“Coming out today after a really tough Lipscomb loss I felt showed a lot of moxie from the girls and just their ability to stay focused on the fact that we are a good team and what we need to do to win ballgames,” UH coach Laura Beeman said.
“Our bench gave us a great boost tonight. But that is not shocking, that is what we’re expecting.”
David hit all seven of her field-goal attempts, including two 3-pointers, and hit her lone free throw of the game. Starting guard Daejah Phillips worked through a slow start offensively to score 12 of her 15 points in the second half. The sophomore dished out a career-best seven assists and forward Kallin Spiller posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
David’s most productive game of her UH career was part of a bench effort that included center Imani Perez’s six points on 3-for-3 shooting in the first half and two 3-pointers from Meilani McBee that helped the Wahine build a 32-22 lead going into halftime.
“Coming off the bench, I’m just trying to keep my team going, keep them motivated, and keep them hyped so we don’t get stagnant,” David said.
Phillips went 1-for-5 from the field in the first half, but went 4-for-4 in a nine-point third quarter outburst and found Spiller and David for layups that accounted for UH’s two other field goals in the period.
“Daejah is that three- to four-level scorer for us,” Beeman said, referencing Phillips’ ability to score in the paint, on mid-range jumpers and from 3-point range and facilitate for her teammates.
“She’s a great teammate, she’s working really hard on both ends of the ball and as long as we can continue to find great chemistry with her and other teammates we’re going to be OK, because she’s a tough match.”
The three-day tournament continues today with UH (1-4) taking on Florida Gulf Coast (4-1) at 2:30 p.m. FGCU ran away to a 65-45 win over the UH in last week’s Bank of Hawaii Invitational.
“Obviously we can’t turn the ball over 22 times and give up 26 points,” Beeman said of the adjustments going into the rematch with FGCU.
“We have to continue to get better as a team to be where we want to be in conference. Against Florida Gulf Coast it has to be taking care of the ball, execution on offense and getting back on transition (defense).”
UH missed its first five shots on Friday as Grambling State took a 6-0 lead. Perez broke through for UH off an assist from Lily Wahinekapu to spark a 9-0 UH run capped by David’s 3-pointer from the left wing.
Down 11-9, UH went on an 18-0 run bridging the quarter break, with McBee hitting two 3-pointers, both on feeds from Wahinekapu. A Grambling State basket by Phylicia Allen during the UH surge was later wiped out after an officials’ review and ruled a shot-clock violation and the Wahine led 32-22 at halftime.
With UH up 49-40 with 6:37 left in the fourth quarter, David accounted for eight points in a 10-0 UH run that put the game out of reach.
Colbi Maples went 3-for-t5 from 3-point range to lead Grambling State (1-5) with 17 points.
No. 2 Stanford 93, Florida Gulf Coast 69
All-America guard Haley Jones scored eight of her 24 points in the fourth quarter to help the Cardinal (6-1) pull away from the Eagles (4-1) in the tournament opener.
Jones finished with 14 rebounds and went 4-for-5 from the field in the fourth quarter as Stanford outscored FGCU 32-16 in the final 10 minutes. Forward Kiki Iriafen added 16 points and 11 boards and Cameron Brink added 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 on free throws.
FGCU guard Tishara Morehouse, a 5-foot-3 senior, led the Eagles with 24 points and forward Uju Exeudu hit four 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.