Hawai’i defense stifles UC San Diego as McBee joins elite company

HONOLULU – Sweet shooting on one end.  

Shockingly bad on the other. 

The University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team kept on winning Saturday night, using an elite defense and quality 3-point shooting to take down UC San Diego (13-14, 9-6 Big West) inside the Stan Sheriff Center, 49-44. Lily Wahinekapu led the Rainbow Wahine in scoring with 13 points (2-of-3 3PT), the ninth time this season that the senior guard has finished as the game-high scorer for UH.

MeiLani McBee drained three more 3-pointers in the victory, turning in all 11 of her points in the second quarter to help Hawai’i (20-6, 14-2 Big West) put a healthy margin between themselves and the Tritons by halftime. The three 3-pointers gave McBee an even 200 career makes from behind the arc, joining Amy Atwell as just the second Rainbow Wahine player ever hit the milestone. 

Senior guard Kelsie Imai did a little bit of everything for UH, scoring seven points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out seven more assists to put her on the doorstep of the top five in program history for career helpers. Imani Perez ended the night with six points and nine rebounds, helping anchor a Rainbow Wahine defense that forced UC San Diego to shoot just 17-of-70 from the field. 

“Yeah, our defense is on point right now,” head coach Laura Beeman said of the Rainbow Wahine after the game. “These guys have absolutely made a commitment to what we know we need to do on the defensive side of the ball. I think our biggest challenge right now is [the turnover, rebounding and free throw discrepancies].” 

Despite turning the ball over 22 times and allowing 14 offensive rebounds, the Rainbow Wahine held the lead at the end of each frame throughout the night. Lily Wahinekapu helped Hawai’i get off to a strong start with an early 3-pointer of her own to go along with a beautiful floating layup in transition for an 11-9 advantage after one frame. 

McBee took the torch in the second period, rattling off an 8-2 run by herself before adding one last 3-pointer to help put the Rainbow Wahine up by seven at the halftime break. After the 3-point barrage from the sharpshooter, she sits five makes away from matching the all-time program record. The defense stepped up in a big way in the quarter for UH as well, holding UCSD to three makes across 22 attempts across the 10 minutes of action.

“We always tell [MeiLani] that she needs to hunt for her shot,” Hawai’i senior guard Kelsie Imai said when asked about the impact McBee has on the team’s offense. “Sometimes she’s very passive with it, but if Mei feels good, it’s going in.” 

The defense continued tightening in the third quarter for Hawai’i, dominating the glass while holding the Tritons to four total points in the frame to grow the advantage to 15 with 10 minutes left to play. The sisters in Jovi Lefotu and Wahinekapu strung together two-thirds of the Rainbow Wahine’s points in the period after halftime as Hawai’i looked well on the way to win number 20 on the season. 

UC San Diego, who came into the game as winners of three of their last four, would not go down quietly in the islands. After Kelsie Imai’s layup to start the fourth gave Hawai’i its biggest lead of the night at 17, the Tritons fought back furiously to cut the deficit as low as six with just over a minute to play before the Rainbow Wahine recovered to ultimately hold off UCSD. 

The Tritons saw Gracie Gallegos and Sumayah Sugapong finish the night with 12 points each, needing a combined 36 shots from the field to each turn in double figures. Sabrina Ma was held to just six points on 2-of-15 shooting as Hawai’i swept the regular season series over UCSD. 

The victory secured UH head coach Laura Beeman’s fifth 20-win season in the islands and the program’s 18th overall season reaching that threshold. Hawai’i has won 20 games in three of the last four seasons but have been stuck with that ceiling as of late; the Rainbow Wahine have not tallied above 20 wins in a single season since winning 21 contests across the 2015-16 slate.  

(Hawai’i’s single season highwater win mark under Beeman is 23, which came during the 2014-15 season) 

Despite the 14-game win streak, the program’s longest since that ‘14-15 run, Beeman and her team just remain focused on ways to improve in time for the next challenger. 

“It’s working for us right now because our defense is holding,” Beeman said after the game. “If you get a team though that gets hot, that becomes really scary and we’re just leaving too many points on the floor … Here’s the positive with that; number one, yes, we’re still winning, but number two, it gives us such great room for growth.” 

Hawai’i hits the road for the final time during the regular season next week, traveling to UC Riverside on Thursday to close out the month of February. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. HT and can be watched on ESPN+ with a subscription.