As I tried to figure out how this buzzer-beater, Hail Mary, walk-off came about, the governor’s spokeswoman, Jodi Leong, passed along a suggestion.

“He said you should call Laura Beeman,” Leong said. “He said it twice.”

Apparently the University of Hawaii women’s basketball coach’s testimony was quite influential in $3 million being added to House Bill 1700. The funds are to help the Manoa and Hilo athletic departments with deficits caused in large part by crazy travel expenses.

It won’t be a completely done deal until HB 1700 does not appear on the list of bills Ige intends to veto, on June 27. But it sure sounds like Beeman made a game-winner, since just a couple of weeks ago a different bill specifically addressing the issue was thrown onto a dead pile as the session drew toward a close.

Several other UH coaches testified, too. But Beeman is who the governor mentioned.

No wonder people keep telling me she has a future in athletic administration. Beeman certainly has the multi-tasking skills for it.

“I wrote it up at the end of February, I think we were in the middle of the conference tournament, on the road, so I couldn’t be there to testify in person,” Beeman said Monday. “I knew I had to do it, as important as all of us coaches felt this was. We are at such a disadvantage because of our geography to some extent.”

Beeman said the support is justified because of what college sports mean to the entire community.

“When people say, ‘Why do you have athletics? It’s a drain on the university, a drain on the state,’ my response is I don’t know if you can put a dollar number on opportunity and hope,” she said. “If you look at the statistics of women who are in athletics who avoid abusive relationships, do not get pregnant, do not abuse alcohol, that supports it. Our student-athletes have hope, have opportunity, the means to be successful. When people ask why athletics matter, that’s why. It’s not to be superstars on the island, or what a fun way to make a living, coaching.”

As for Ige, despite what some UH sports fans chose to believe because the requested $3 million was not in his original budget, the governor doesn’t hate the sports programs of his alma mater.

“I’ve been an avid UH sports fan since the 1970s when I was in middle school, before the UH basketball team became the Fabulous Five,” Ige said Monday. “The University of Hawaii has asked for and received autonomy on how state monies are expended. The UH must take responsibility for the allocation of state taxpayer dollars.”

Originally, a bill proposed the funding come from the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Since generating tourism through sports events is part of the HTA’s mission, it made sense (to some, anyway) that the visitor dollars brought in via UH sports justified getting some of that piece of the pie. Plus, there was precedent of HTA grants to UH and other Hawaii college sports teams.

But the HTA fought that bill, successfully.

Supportive legislators and the UH athletic departments found another route.

And Laura Beeman’s testimony hit a 3-pointer … or at least a chord with the governor.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.