Shorthanded Hawai’i opens new year with loss at UC Santa Barbara

Another day, another absence. 

The University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team dropped its fifth game in the last six outings on Thursday evening, allowing a potent UC Santa Barbara offense to get comfortable with 10 three-pointers on the way to a 72-62 loss for the Rainbow Wahine. Imani Perez missed her first game of the season, joining injured UH teammates Jovi Lefotu, Kelsie Imai and Danijela Kujovic in street clothes as the four rotation players watched the Rainbow Wahine get dominated on the glass.  

The loss marks the sixth straight time that Hawai’i (6-6, 0-2 Big West) has fallen inside the Thunderdome, last beating the Gauchos in Santa Barbara in February 2021. The two programs have split the usual two regular season matchups for the last five years, last seeing one side sweep in the 2018-19 season when Hawai’i both meetings by double-digits.

With another absence, Hawai’i head coach Laura Beeman turned to another different starting lineup as Daejah Phillips returned to the first five alongside three other guards in Lily Wahinekapu, Jade Peacock and MeiLani McBee. Freshman center Ritorya Tamilo rounded out the starting lineup but played only 16 minutes, tied for her second-shortest outing of the season for the Rainbow Wahine. 

Cayla Williams led the charge for UC Santa Barbara, scoring a team-high 14 points off the bench while drilling 3-of-4 from distance as five different Gauchos finished in double figures. Alyssa Marin, the Big West’s leading scorer entering the game with over 17 points per game, was held to 10 points (8-of-8 FT) and only one made field goal attempt (1-of-7 overall) but became the fourth active Big West women’s basketball player to surpass the 1,000-point threshold for her career with that singular make. 

Despite Marin’s milestone coming in the opening minutes of the game, it was Hawai’i holding a slim 9-8 lead after five minutes of action as Brooklyn Rewers cashed in on the first three-point make from either side. The Gauchos (8-5, 2-1 Big West) blitzed the Rainbow Wahine out of the media timeout, using a 10-4 run to close the frame to enter the second quarter up by a handful. 

With Tamilo tacked to the bench for the entirety of the second period with a pair of personal fouls, UC Santa Barbara continued the attack of the glass and drained four more three-pointers to help extend the to as much as 12 for the Gauchos before the break. Wahinekapu finished a layup with 30 seconds left in the quarter to bring the Rainbow Wahine within 10 and came up with a steal in the closing seconds of the half but couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer sounded on the half as UH went into the locker room down 37-27. 

The Gauchos’ hot shooting continued through the break in the action as the hosts drilled four more triples in the third quarter, fending off multiple UH attempts to pull the game within a couple of possessions with timely makes from distance. After falling down by as many as 15, the Rainbow Wahine pulled within single digits with a 9-2 run, but Martha Pietsch calmed things down for UCSB with her only three-pointer of the night to make it a 47-36 lead for the hosts with three minutes left in the quarter. 

Hawai’i responded with three straight free throws to make it an eight-point deficit again, but back-to-back threes from Cayla Williams gave the Gauchos the momentum as the game rolled over into the fourth quarter. Williams opened the final 10 minutes with a three-point play the old-fashioned way before teammate Jessica Grant connected on her fourth triple of the night to give UCSB its biggest lead of the game at 16 points, forcing a fast timeout by Laura Beeman less than three minutes into the final period. 

The Rainbow Wahine continued to fight, getting to the line and making free throws to try and mount a comeback before ultimately falling to the firepower of the Gauchos, 72-62. It marks the fifth time the Hawai’i has allowed 70 or more points to an opponent this season; the Rainbow Wahine are now 0-5 in such games. 

Lily Wahinekapu paced UH with a game-high 17 points, playing a season-high 37 minutes with the injuries decimating the Rainbow Wahine guard depth. Daejah Phillips added 13 points and seven rebounds in the loss, shooting an efficient 5-of-7 from the floor in 30 minutes of work as she became the 12th Rainbow Wahine basketball player to eclipse the 1,200-point mark for a career. 

Mia ‘Uhila played a season-high 27 minutes off the bench for Hawai’i, turning in her first double-digit scoring performance of the year with 12 points to go along with three rebounds. The senior guard got to the line seven times, hitting on six attempts as she made her case to be part of the solution to the current UH injury woes. 

Hawai’i returns to action quickly, visiting Cal Poly on Saturday for an 11 a.m. HT/1 p.m. PT tip-off in search of a split and the first road win for the Rainbow Wahine since Nov. 9 at Portland State. The Mustangs enter Saturday at 6-7 overall and 1-2 in Big West play after falling at UC Irvine on Thursday, 60-38.