UNLV cuts down Hawai’i in opening round of WBIT

Powered off and pau. 

The University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team saw the end of another incredible season on Thursday, falling to No. 2 UNLV in the first round of the 2025 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, 63-46. Lily Wahinekapu led all scorers with 18 points, tallying 12 in the fourth quarter as Big West Player of the Year tried her hardest to pull UH back late. 

“UNLV is an incredible team,” Hawai’i head coach Laura Beeman said to open her postgame comments. “I want to congratulate [head coach Lindy La Rocque] and her staff and their players. She does a phenomenal job with this program; there’s a reason why they’re a [number one seed in the Mountain West] year-in-and-year-out.” 

The Lady Rebels (26-7) were paced by redshirt freshman Meadow Roland, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year and Sixth Player of the Year, who had 16 points and two blocks off the bench. The 6-foot-2 forward scored 11 of her 16 in the first half, helping UNLV take a seven-point lead into the locker room at the break. 

Hawai’i (22-10) started strong, scoring the game’s first eight points before allowing the Lady Rebels to close the opening quarter on a 12-2 run. Senior guard Kelsie Imai provided a spark with all five of her points in first 10 minutes, knocking down a 3-pointer as the Rainbow Wahine only trailed by a pair after one period of play. 

3-pointers by Brooklyn Rewers and Mia ‘Uhila helped Hawai’i keep within one midway through the second quarter, but five straight points from Roland and a triple by McKinna Brackens pushed the UNLV advantage to 27-20 by the halftime break. Seven turnovers by the Rainbow Wahine were a setback, but the Big West regular season champions locked down on the defensive end and held the Lady Rebels to 34% shooting through the first 20 minutes. 

“Our goal was to come out and start the game a lot stronger than what we did in the semifinals at the Big West [Tournament],” said Beeman. “We wanted to compete. We told the girls we were going to leave everything on the floor, I think they did … With the speed and the length of UNLV, the [passing] windows are very, very small.”  

The Lady Rebels opened a double-digit lead to begin the third quarter, scoring the first two buckets out of the locker rooms to force Beeman to call for a timeout less than two minutes after play had resumed. The stoppage did little to break the UNLV momentum as the Mountain West regular season champions pieced together an 11-0 run in total before Rewers finally scored with 4:52 left in the period. 

‘Uhila hit her second 3-pointer after the media timeout and Rewers added another bucket that made it 39-27, but a Macy Spencer three and Kiara Jackson layup canceled out a Wahinekapu steal-and-score to send UNLV into the fourth quarter leading by 15. 

“Third quarter was rough,” Beeman said. “We could not score the ball, gave up some boards, gave up some big shots but this team has never stopped playing.” 

Wahinekapu and Imani Perez scored the first two baskets of the final frame, pulling Hawai’i within 11 before UNLV strung together 9 of the next 12 points to go up 53-36 with just over four minutes left to play. Looking for a miracle, Hawai’i turned to Wahinekapu as the senior guard scored the final 10 points for the Rainbow Wahine before finally being subdued by the Lady Rebels, 63-46. 

Sophomore guard Amarachi Kimpson, who moved into the starting lineup this year after becoming the first Lady Rebel to ever win Mountain West Sixth Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in the same season in 2023-24, chipped in with 14 points and three assists in 30 minutes for UNLV. Macy Spencer added 10 points for the Mountain West regular season champions, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers off the bench to help propel the Lady Rebels into the second round of the WBIT on Sunday against Florida. 

Brooklyn Rewers was the only player other than Wahinekapu to finish in double figures for Hawai’i, scoring 10 points and snagging four rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. Rebounding woes appeared again for the Rainbow Wahine, nearly getting doubled up on the glass by the Lady Rebels, 47-26. 

With the season-ending loss, Hawai’i says aloha to a special group of seniors that leave the program with their names littered across the record books. With her final assist against UNLV, Kelsie Imai finished her time with the Rainbow Wahine with the fifth-most assists in program history, breaking a tie with Ayesha Brooks (‘87-90) as she turns in her shoes after 318 career dimes. 

Imai also finishes her five seasons with UH with the second-most career games played (136), trailing only teammate and fellow fifth-year senior guard MeiLani McBee, who appeared in a program-record 140 games during her time in the islands. McBee also ends her Hawai’i career as the all-time leading 3-point shooter, knocking down 208 shots from behind the arc. 

Wahinekapu’s efforts in the islands landed the ‘Iolani alum in the top 20 of all-time scorers for the program, tallying 1,114 points across three seasons. In total, Hawai’i came out of the COVID-19 pandemic with four total Big West titles (two regular season, two Big West Tournament), more than 80 victories and a lifetime of memories for the islands thanks in large part to this group of graduating seniors. 

“What you tell a locker room like that is sit in your disappointment for a few minutes but man, celebrate what you’ve done,” said Beeman of the conversation amongst the team after the final buzzer. “This group, particularly this senior group, has done something incredibly, incredibly special. You’re always disappointed after a loss, but a result cannot overshadow the accomplishment of what this group has done.” 

The second straight WBIT appearance marked the ninth postseason tournament showing for Hawai’i in 13 years under Beeman and was the 20th time that the Rainbow Wahine have ever extended the season further than the conference tournament. Hawai’i has not won a postseason game since 2001 when the program reached the WNIT semifinals.