There’s more at stake tonight than just sending some seniors off right or playing for seeding in the Big West tournament.
It’s remembering how to win, period.
The Hawaii women’s basketball team forgot its marching orders during conference play — a six-game winning streak was followed immediately by its present four-game slide — and is in need of one more about-face heading into tonight’s home finale against Cal Poly.
Senior guards Julissa Tago, Courtney Middap and Savannah Reier recall past successes of just a few weeks ago while applying lessons learned in recent shortcomings, including a 57-56 loss at the buzzer to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday.
“I think (ending this streak) might mean more to them, because they don’t want their career to end,” coach Laura Beeman said Thursday. “But this entire team knows what’s at stake, what we have to do, and hopefully we can get a win before we go on the road so we can get that confidence back.”
UH (8-7 Big West) can guarantee itself the 4 seed, and a first-round bye in next week’s Big West tournament, if it beats the Mustangs (6-9). A loss means falling into the bottom half of the eight tournament-bound teams and needing to win four times in five days to take the tourney title. But win or loss today, UH will begin play at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid and need to find some success to make it back to the Honda Center in Anaheim for the semifinals.
The three outgoing players — two four-year veterans and a two-year transfer from a junior college — might start tonight.
Tago, a 5-foot-9 shooting guard from Medford, Ore., arrived just after UH’s last NCAA tournament appearance in 2016. She could always get buckets with a smooth jump shot, but transformed herself into a conditioned, consistent scorer this season (14.8 points per game) after struggling with a shoulder injury as a junior (5.3 ppg). Beeman called her journey “extraordinary both on and off the court.”
“It was tough,” Tago said. “I knew I had two choices — either to continue to do what I was doing before, which wasn’t really working for me, or to dig down and get to work. And I think that for me I just wanted to have the best senior year I could, and give this program some wins more than losses. For me the biggest thing was just getting in shape and working hard.”
She’s nine points away from becoming the program’s 22nd 1,000-point scorer. She broke program records for 3-pointers in a game (eight) and a season (62 and counting) last week, when she put up 60 points on a two-game road trip.
Middap arrived in 2016 as a 3-point specialist out of Tasmania, Australia, but her role broadened considerably in the last few years to a true utility player playing anywhere from point guard to power forward. The understated, 5-10 team leader is a crafty finisher around the rim and has 462 career points to her name.
Cumulative injuries began to take their toll and Middap went into her senior year knowing she wasn’t able to play at full speed. She still managed to score a career-high 24 vs. Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 18, tying the then-school record for 3s in a game with six.
“I’ve really enjoyed this year playing with the group and going through our battles together,” Middap said. “(Injuries) have been tough, but … knowing we have a goal to achieve has definitely helped me push through that. I know I’ll always get a rest once season’s over, but not looking forward to that yet. One game at a time.”
Said Beeman: “I can only thank her for the sacrifices she’s made. It shows how much she loves her teammates, this university, this state, how much she loves the game of basketball.”
The 5-7 Reier, a vocal leader and player, was accomplished in preps in hoops and soccer and as a football kicker in her hometown of Tuscaloosa, Ala. She stayed there through community college, at Shelton State, which went 70-4 over her two years. In carving out a role at Hawaii as a hustle player, she added efficient 3-point shooting (37.3%) this season, and had a 15-point game at Long Beach State on Jan. 23. Her father, Travis, is a sports analyst who covers the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“I’ve really just tried to focus on my role this whole year. That’s been really helpful to not only the team, but to myself, to have something defined that I bring every game,” Reier said. “And I’ve really taken pride in that. It’s been a good senior year and I’m thankful just to have the role I did.”
Beeman said Reier could’ve had a regular starting role elsewhere and was “selfless enough to come off the bench and give us valuable minutes night in and night out.”
All three seniors are on track to receive degrees this spring.
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HAWAII WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
At Stan Sheriff Center
>> When: 7 p.m. today
>> Who: Cal Poly (9-17, 6-9 Big West) at Hawaii (14-14, 8-7)
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
