Hawaii pulls past Portland in Bank of Hawaii Classic Finale

Hawaii pulls past Portland in Bank of Hawaii Classic Finale

Nov 23, 2025

Hawaii G Kira-May Filemu lines up a 3-point attempt during a home game. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Hawaii pulls past Portland in Bank of Hawaii Classic Finale

BY PAUL BRECHT | HONOLULU
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 23, 2025

HONOLULU – Growing fast and breaking away from old weights.

The University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team remained perfect to begin the 2025-26 season, taking down the University of Portland, 66-61, to win the Bank of Hawaii Classic for the second straight year. Sophomore Ritorya Tamilo matched her career high with 16 points to lead the Rainbow Wahine, going 6-for-8 from the field while knocking down her second collegiate 3-pointer in the first quarter.

Fellow New Zealand product Bailey Flavell added nine points, five rebounds and three assists for UH, knocking down 7-of-8 from the charity stripe and assisting Tamilo in the final minute to give the Rainbow Wahine the lead for good. Tamilo and Flavell were each named to the all-tournament team for their efforts over the weekend with Tamilo taking home Most Valuable Player honors.

The win snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Pilots for UH, delivering the program’s first victory against Portland since 1992.

Imani Perez chipped in eight points, three rebounds and a pair of blocks in the victory, delivering clutch plays on both ends in the fourth quarter to help the Rainbow Wahine turn a six-point deficit into a five-point win.

Portland started quickly, racing out of the gates to a 7-0 lead before Tamilo finally got UH on the board with 4:54 left to play in the opening quarter. The 6-foot-5 center carried the Rainbow Wahine offense early with nine points, ending the first period with a 3-pointer to put UH ahead, 13-11.

The sides traded the lead with a pair of threes to open the second quarter, but the Pilots caught fire from distance and pushed forward with a 25-point explosion in the frame to go into halftime leading by six.

Hawai’i punched back after Portland started fast again in the third quarter, seeing Saniyah Neverson finish through contact and hit the free throw after to pull the Rainbow Wahine within a point with 5:05 left in the frame. Kira-May Filemu pushed the hosts ahead a minute later as she cashed in from the left corner for three, but Pilots forward Florence Dallow responded with a pair of triples to end the period and put UH down 49-48 entering the final 10 minutes.

Portland pushed the lead to six behind a pair of buckets from Rhyan Mogel to begin the fourth quarter, but a technical foul on head coach Michael Meek stopped the momentum cold for the visitors with 8:29 to play.

Flavell hit on 1-of-2 from the line but assisted an Imani Perez 3-pointer moments later to pull UH back within two and return life to the weary Stan Sheriff Center crowd.

After Mogel split a trip to the charity stripe herself to put the Pilots up 56-53, Tee Bond stepped up and drained her first 3-pointer as a Rainbow Wahine to tie the game with 5:13 remaining.

Portland was able to reclaim the lead with under two minutes left after Nicole Rodriguez went 2-for-2 at the line, but a third-chance layup for Tamilo on the next possession tied the game at 60 with 1:28 to go.

Just as it had since the technical foul to begin the quarter, the UH defense suffocated the Pilots and forced up a miss from Rodriguez to keep it tied. Hawai’i wasted no time getting down the floor, seeing Flavell break down the defense and dish off a dime to a wide-open Tamilo for the go-ahead basket with 46 seconds to play.

With the lead in hand, UH got two more stops defensively and tacked on a few free throws for good measure to secure the first set of hardware as a group with a 66-61 win over Portland. The defense was stellar to close for Hawai’i, holding the Pilots without a made field goal over the final 8:41 of regulation.

It marked the second consecutive season that the Rainbow Wahine won the Bank of Hawaii Classic and the first time the program has started a year 4-0 since the 2000-01 campaign.

Rhyan Mogel led Portland with 16 points, knocking down 5-of-8 shots from the floor and going a perfect 3-for-3 from long range. Nicole Rodriguez added 13 points on 3-of-12 shooting from distance while Dyani Ananiev scored 13 points and was the Pilots’ lone representative on the all-tournament team.

Hawai’i returns to action on Friday, hosting Vermont for the first day of the American Savings Bank Rainbow Wahine Showdown. Santa Clara and Lindenwood are the other two participants in the three-day round-robin tournament that runs from November 28-30 at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

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Hawai’i falls at Portland as late Rainbow Wahine comeback runs out of time

Hawai’i falls at Portland as late Rainbow Wahine comeback runs out of time

Nov 7, 2024

Hawai’i head coach Laura Beeman gives directions during a home contest during the 2023-24 season. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Hawai’i falls at Portland as late Rainbow Wahine comeback runs out of time 

BY PAUL BRECHT | HONOLULU
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Turnovers and triples. 

For the second year in a row, the University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team opened the season with a road loss against an NCAA Tournament squad as the Rainbow Wahine fell to defending WCC tournament champion Portland on Thursday, 76-65. Hawai’i struggled with the heavy defensive pressure of the Pilots, committing 24 turnovers that lead to 27 points for Portland. 

Flush with talent that head coach Laura Beeman has admitted will lead to plenty of tinkering throughout the season, Hawai’i’s first starting lineup of the year included Daejah Phillips, last season’s Big West 6th Player of the Year award winner, along with Lily Wahinekapu, MeiLani McBee, Brooklyn Rewers and Imani Perez. The veteran Rainbow Wahine lineup got off to a solid start, scoring the first five points of the game before Portland responded with a 9-0 run on the back of three straight 3-pointers. 

The Pilots continued the marksmanship from long range through the media timeout, using a multitude of UH miscues to extend the lead to eight by the end of the first quarter, 18-10. In all, Portland connected on five triples in the opening frame to just two by the Rainbow Wahine. 

Phillips scored 11 of the 20 points in the second quarter for Hawai’i as they got the turnover problem under control, but the Pilots stayed hot from 3-point range to counter each Rainbow Wahine run on the way to a 40-30 lead at the halftime break. 

Hawai’i started slowly out of the gate in the second half, giving up the first six points before Jade Peacock got the Rainbow Wahine offense going again with a 3-pointer. The Australian guard jumped a passing lane and took a steal to the rack for another two before a Phillips bucket with 5:56 remaining in the third quarter brought Hawai’i back within single digits for the first time after halftime. 

The Rainbow Wahine pulled as close as seven with 3:43 left in the third after freshman Kira-May Filemu put back a Jovi Lefotu miss, but Portland would end the quarter on a 15-2 run behind the turnover issues returning for UH and take a massive 20-point lead into the fourth. Lefotu finished with seven points, three assists and three steals in her first official action back in over a year and a half. 

Hawai’i did not quit fighting despite the daunting margin that grew as large as 23, closing out the final eight minutes of regulation on a 20-8 run behind a bevy of forced turnovers. The Rainbow Wahine pulled within eight with 1:07 left to play when Daejah Phillips came up with a steal, but she was unable to connect with a teammate on the throw-ahead pass and the Pilots closed the door on the UH comeback try from the charity stripe, 76-65. 

Portland was led by Maisie Burnham’s 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting (3-of-5 3PT) in 22 minutes of action, going 7-for-8 at the free throw line in the win. Emme Shearer added 15 points for the Pilots, while Dyani Ananiev chipped in 13 points in 23 minutes off the bench. 

Daejah Phillips paced the Rainbow Wahine with 19 points, going a perfect 11-for-11 at the free throw line while adding four rebounds and three steals in the loss. Freshman center Ritortya Tamilo was the only other Hawai’i player to reach double figures, adding 10 points off the bench in her first official collegiate contest. 

Hawai’i set a new program record for most single-game free throw attempts without a miss, nailing all 25 shots against the Pilots to surpass the record of 16 that was set back in March of 2001. It helped the team combat some ugly numbers as they shot just 44 percent to Portland’s 50 percent from the field while turning the ball over a whopping 24 times. 

Mia ‘Uhila chipped in eight points off the bench, all coming from the foul line in her Hawai’i debut. The Rainbow Wahine will put the loss behind them and quickly shift focus to ‘Uhila’s old squad, Portland State, who they face on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m. HT. 

Hawai’i opens Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic title defense with win over Portland

Hawai’i opens Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic title defense with win over Portland

Dec 21, 2023

Hawai’i opens Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic title defense with win over Portland

BY PAUL BRECHT | HONOLULU
PUBLISHED DEC 21, 2023

HONOLULU — Confident Matthue Cotton, double-double machine Bernardo de Silva and a quarterfinal victory for the ‘Bows. 

The Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors men’s basketball team (8-2) started slow and ended fast Thursday night, taking down the University of Portland Pilots (6-7), 69-56, to open the 2023 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic slate for the home team. Cotton finished with a team-high 15 points, 13 coming in the second half, as de Silva posted his third double-double in the last four games to help hold of a furious Portland comeback try late. 

The Pilots put up the game’s first points with a layup inside before Justin McKoy answered back immediately, drilling a three-pointer from the right wing to give the ‘Bows their first lead of the night, 3-2. UH captain Bernardo de Silva followed it up with a layup to make it 5-2 before a 7-0 Portland run pushed the visitors out of the WCC ahead, 9-5.  

A Noel Coleman triple following under-12 media timeout ended a near-three minute UH scoring drought and cut the deficit to one. Hawai’i tied the game at 13 just a minute and a half later when defending DMC MVP JoVon McClanahan got on the score sheet with a left-wing three and took a 16-14 lead two possessions later when McKoy hit from the same spot behind the arc. UH guard Juan Munoz then hit the squad’s third consecutive make from long range to make it 19-16 before picking up an assist with a nice floating post feed to de Silva, extending the Hawai’i lead to five. 

“I thought [Portland] did a great job early, we had to weather a lot… we didn’t shoot it well early,” Hawai’i head coach Eran Ganot said after the game. “We are a great shooting team and so I like that we were still aggressive. It’s different when you take bad ones. We had some good looks early, but [the guys] stuck with it.” 

The back-and-forth would continue until Mor Seck electrified the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd with a monster block with 2:51 left in the 1st half and Hawai’i leading 25-22. The momentum from the swat rolled into a 30-22 Hawai’i advantage, accented by a powerful Cotton tomahawk jam that got the crowd buzzing before Portland’s Bol Dengdit hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to quiet it down once again.  

Hawai’i used back-to-back Noel Coleman buckets, including a nifty layup in traffic with 12 seconds left in the half, to secure a seven-point advantage going into halftime. 

Eran Ganot’s team extended the lead to 12 quickly after the break with five fast points, fueled by a McClanahan three and Cotton putback to force a Portland timeout. McClanahan would hit a baseline jumper to make it a 14-point game before the Pilots finally scored for the first time in the second half. 

Hawai’i continued the solid second-half start with infectious ball movement, pushing the lead up to 18 after a beautiful transition break with McClanahan, Coleman, Cotton and de Silva all getting touches with only two combined dribbles taken to go the length of the floor for the score. 

Following a 30-second Pilots’ timeout, Portland began to cut into the UH lead, bringing it down to 11 with just over 10 minutes remaining. The WCC-representatives cut it to a seven-point deficit with 5:06 left in regulation and forced a Hawai’i timeout, continuing to fight hard while looking for the program’s first win in the history of the Diamond Head Classic (Portland finished eighth in 2019, going 0-3 in the event in the only other appearance in the DHC for the Pilots). 

Hawai’i was provided some breathing room after the timeout with back-to-back threes from Cotton — one from each of the right and left corners — being coupled with a tough de Silva post finish, extending the lead back to 15 with just under 3 minutes left to play. 

“Always being aggressive, ready to shoot and my teammates were able to find me,” Cotton said were the reasons for his hot second half after the game. “Once I see the ball go through the rim, confidence-wise, it’s a good feeling.” 

The ‘Bows closed the game out feeling good, going on a 12-6 run to take the quarterfinal matchup over Portland, 69-56, and calmly move into Friday’s semifinal round against Georgia Tech. The Yellowjackets, hailing out of the ACC, defeated UMass in a thrilling 69-66 comeback victory earlier on Thursday and will face off against UH for the first time since 2019 in the DHC (Georgia Tech was a 70-53 winner over Hawai’i in the tournament’s third-place game). 

Portland’s Vukasin Masic finished with a game-best 18 points to lead the way for the Pilots, who will take on UMass in the consolation bracket on Friday. The guard drilled all three of his attempts from range. 

UH’s McClanahan handed out a season-high seven dimes while committing zero (0) turnovers in the win for Hawai’i, the fourth consecutive Diamond Head Classic victory for the program after winning the event last year for the first time ever. Noel Coleman finished in double figures for the ninth time in ten games this season with 14 points, knocking down a pair from long distance and going 6-for-11 overall from the floor. 

The ‘Bows take on Georgia Tech on Friday, December 22 at 6:00 p.m. HT/11:00 p.m. ET with a spot in the tournament’s title game on Christmas Eve on the line.