Wahine, Harris too much for Titans

Hawaii senior Briana Harris hit four 3-pointers in a 20-point performance and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team completed a sweep of its final regular-season road trip with a 55-45 win at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday in Fullerton, Calif.

UH guard Sarah Toeaina finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists and point guard Olivia Crawford also scored 11 points for the Wahine (10-17, 6-9 Big West), who swept the season series with the Titans (4-23, 1-13).

“It was nice to get two road wins. It’s nice to get some confidence going into the (Big West) tournament. It was nice to see Bri Harris play well,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview.

Harris scored only 24 points in UH’s previous six games as her average dipped to 9.4 per game. She contributed nine points to UH’s 73-60 win at UC Irvine on Thursday and found her rhythm early on Saturday, hitting all three of her 3-point attempts in the first quarter. She finished 7-for-13 from the field with seven rebounds and three steals.

“She has not had great consistency, (so) for her to play as well as she did offensively and defensively was really nice and is what we needed,” Beeman said. “She really triggered that third-quarter spurt for us.”

Harris scored on a putback just before the halftime buzzer to give UH a 22-21 lead at the break and the Wahine outscored the Titans 17-6 in the third quarter to take control.

Cal State Fullerton closed to within eight on three occasions in the fourth quarter, but Crawford thwarted the comeback with a 3-pointer with 5:17 left and UH led by at least nine the rest of the way.

Daeja Smith led Cal State Fullerton with 16 points and China Henderson added 11. But the Titans mustered just 15 points in the second and third quarters and their point total was the lowest by a UH opponent this season.

“We needed to apply a little more ball pressure, we made things a little bit more difficult for them getting the ball to certain players, but it was just good overall hustle and good intensity,” Beeman said of UH’s defensive performance coming out of halftime.

UH shot 32 percent from the field and went 9-for-25 from 3-point range while holding the Titans to 27 percent shooting overall. The Wahine also won the rebounding battle 49-30. Makenna Woodfolk led UH with eight.

“That’s something we’ve struggled with off and on all year, and the last two or three games we’ve done a very good job of digging people out and securing the ball,” Beeman said. “Rebounding is one of those things that’s non-negotiable, you have to do it.”

UH closes the regular season Saturday with its senior night game against Long Beach State at the Stan Sheriff Center. Harris will be honored as the lone senior on the UH roster.

“We still have some tired, beat-up bodies, kids that are a little under the weather still,” Beeman said. “So hopefully the next couple days off will help them regroup, and get their legs back underneath them and get healthy.”