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Hawaii senior forward Diane Moore had the game of her career on senior night, scoring 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting to help the Rainbow Wahine to a 73-60 victory over UC Santa Barbara on Thursday.
UH (16-11, 10-5 Big West) remained in contention for the No. 2 seed in next week’s conference tournament in California. It needs to win at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday and have Cal Poly lose on the road at UCSB (8-20, 3-12).
Moore and three other seniors — Sydney Haydel, Pua Kailiawa and Kamilah Jackson — were traditionally honored after the game.
Jackson missed the game, her fifth straight, with a right foot sprain, but junior Ashleigh Karaitiana picked up the slack with 17, junior guard Morgan Mason added 16 and sophomore Destiny King scored 12 and grabbed eight rebounds.
Shawna Kuehu appeared to injure her left knee 13 minutes into the action and did not return to action, but she was on her feet with her teammates after the game.
UCSB trimmed a 16-point UH lead to 10 but Mason got fouled while making a 3-pointer and completed the four-point play for a 45-31 lead with 14 minutes left.
UH did not allow its lead to shrink to less than eight the rest of the way. The Wahine won the rebounding battle 38-25.
UCSB guard Melissa Zornig scored a career-high 28 points in the loss.
UH outrebounded UCSB 22-10 in the first half and took a 35-21 lead into the break.
