After a quarter, the Hawaii women’s basketball team succeeded in taking away Florida Gulf Coast’s prolific 3-point shooting.
The trouble was that the Eagles swooped repeatedly to the rim in response. FGCU built a 22-point lead that way and held on for a 73-67 win over UH in front of 348 people on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Now the Rainbow Wahine (1-6) must contend with No. 8 Stanford at 2:30 p.m. today to wrap up the Rainbow Wahine Showdown. The Cardinal routed American, a team that beat UH by 12 on Friday, 71-49 preceding UH’s loss Saturday.
“Each day we’ve gotten a little bit better,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “I want us to come out tomorrow ready to fight from the beginning and not dig a hole.
“If we can beat (Stanford), great. If we can’t beat them, let’s get better. Let’s not beat ourselves. Let’s have them beat us. I would love to get beaten by a team this year other than Hawaii.”
UH shot well enough from the field and very well from 3 (7-for-11) and from the line (20-for-25), but 19 turnovers undermined its cause.
The Wahine started a season 1-6 only three times before — 1981-82, 2008-09 and 2011-12.
FGCU (3-2), a run-and-gun outfit that takes nothing but 3s and layups, shot 5-for-10 on 3s in the first quarter against UH’s zone in building a 25-11 lead. The Eagles shot only 1-for-11 from long range the rest of the way as the Wahine went man-to-man. A series of blow-bys past defenders in the third quarter fueled an 11-1 FGCU run that made it 49-27 midway through the third.
Guard Julissa Tago scored 13 points off the bench to lead UH. Forward Kenna Woodfolk had 10 points and eight rebounds and guards Courtney Middap and Jadynn Alexander contributed 10 apiece. In the case of the defense-minded Alexander, that was a new career best.
“I think that we all really bought into the defensive scheme toward the third quarter, and we got some stops which generated some stuff on offense,” said Alexander, who had a block and a steal.
It was still a 16-point game going into the fourth quarter. To their credit, the Wahine chipped away and got within four points on a 3 by Leah Salanoa with 11 seconds left.
“Incredibly proud of our fight in the last half of the third quarter and fourth quarter, and how we came back,” Beeman said. “We didn’t stop playing. We could’ve. We could’ve not showed up today. But proud of the girls for fighting. We know the areas that we’re deficient in, we’re very aware of it. The good thing is we know it now and not in March.”