At some point, “Julissa” became “Jules,” which begat bursts of “J!”

“It’s just ‘J’ now because it’s easier to say when I’m mad,” Rainbow Wahine basketball coach Laura Beeman said of sophomore Julissa Tago. “ ‘J!’ It’s just easier.”

Those occasions have been few so far this season for UH (1-1), which saw Tago become its surprise leading scorer (21.5 ppg) after the opening two-game road trip to Portland and Seattle University last week.

Tago put in a career-high 28 points on her birthday in her home state of Oregon in a 76-47 loss on Nov. 10, then followed it up with an efficient 15 in a more balanced group effort in a 73-58 win over Seattle. The 5-foot-9 sophomore is shooting 59.4 percent from the field going into this weekend’s Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic, which begins today against Northern Arizona (0-2).

The “Whiteout” home opener against the Big Sky team is followed by a contest against San Diego (2-0) of the West Coast Conference on Sunday. The Mountain West’s Boise State is also in the four-team tournament but does not play UH.

“This is a huge weekend for us,” said Tago, who averaged 5.1 points and was named to the All-Big West freshman team last season. “Both teams are really good teams. It’s going to be a challenge to get both wins, but I think if we play our hardest, play within ourselves and stick to what we know we can do, we can for sure get these two.”

“J” isn’t among UH’s better defenders, but lives up to her nickname on offense, where she does a little bit of everything — shoot the 3, hit the mid-range, handle the ball, post up, drive to the basket.

That will come in handy against the run-and-gun Lumberjacks. NAU lost high-scoring affairs with UC Santa Barbara (96-93) and Rice (88-83) its opening week. But the Lumberjacks are shooting 41 percent on 3-pointers, and forward Kenna McDavis (24.0 ppg) has already hit 10 from distance.

While Tago was the consistent bright spot during UH’s opening week — and there was overall progress made from Game 1 to 2 — there remains much more to do as a unit.

“We have to get more shots up, we have to shoot a better percentage (.357), and we can’t blow schemes like we have on defense,” Beeman said. “We have to push our tempo and go.”

Tago sees a higher ceiling than UH had during its 12-18 struggle of 2016-17.

“T (Tia Kanoa) is an amazing point guard. There’s just more of a flow on offense,” she said. “Tia and Toe (Sarah Toeaina), they’re talking the whole time. We have each other’s back more, I think, on our rotation and us knowing our spots more has helped a lot.”

UH is going for its first repeat title (and sixth overall) in the Rainbow Wahine Classic, which dates back to 1979.