UH gets first BWC win

The Salanoa twins had Long Beach State seeing double, and the crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday seeing triple.

The juniors from Oxnard, Calif., each made three 3-pointers as the Rainbow Wahine beat Long Beach State 74-66 at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday.

UH made nine of 24 from beyond the arc in its first Big West win of the season after three losses. Hawaii improved to 8-9 overall, while LBSU fell to 0-4 and 2-16.

“We don’t draw it up and say let’s shoot 25 3s,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “We’re not that team. We’re still trying to find that balance.”

Julissa Tago and Sarah Toeaina led Hawaii with 15 points each, with Makenna Woodfolk adding 14. Lahni Salanoa scored 11.

There were plenty of open looks against the 49ers’ zone defense, but Beeman wasn’t ecstatic about all of the shot selection.

“It’s a Catch-22,” she said. “When you have someone with an open shot you want them to take it. But sometimes early in the (shot) clock, not.”

As for Lahni Salanoa’s 14 trey attempts, nine came in the first half. She made two.

“(After halftime) I knew I had to calm down and work through the offense a little bit.”

Hawaii is not a great 3-point shooting team, coming in averaging 30.5 percent.

“Most teams will zone them. So we played the percentages,” 49ers coach Jeff Cammon said. “They hit a couple more than we wanted them to. Especially the timely ones.”

Hawaii never trailed after midway through the second quarter. But it frittered away most of a 39-30 halftime lead, and LBSU closed to 45-42 when Martina McCowan converted a steal into a layup with 4:27 left in the third quarter.

It was a few seconds before an officials’ timeout, and the Wahine used the break wisely.

“We’d come out (for the second half) flat, (Long Beach State) had intensity, we were flat,” Beeman said. “We needed to attack and we came out with a great possession.”

It ended with Lahni Salanoa hitting an open 3-pointer.

“We were just going through our zone offense and J (Tago) found me,” she said.

Hawaii regained control of the game, outscoring Long Beach State 11-3 the rest of the quarter.

Leah Salanoa made all three of her 3-point shots, including two bombs early in the fourth quarter that gave UH its biggest lead of the game, 62-48.

“Every game, every shootaround I go in wanting to be accurate and comfortable with my shot,” said Leah Salanoa, who made a career-high six 3-pointers in a game against UC Irvine in 2017. “I hadn’t been hitting them like last year.”

When they weren’t shooting 3s, the Wahine often took long 2-point shots. Two 18-footers by Tia Kanoa put UH up 12-8 early.

A spin move for two of LBSU guard Shanaijah Davison’s game-high 20 points tied it at 23-all. But Hawaii scored the next eight and led the rest of the way.

That spree started with a 3-pointer by Tago. Then came the most impressive defensive play of the game, a swat at the basket by Woodfolk.

“We’re a team that gets excited about offense. Tonight we took pride in our defense,” Beeman said.

And rebounding. The Wahine had 45 caroms to 20 for the 49ers. The coach was especially pleased with the offensive glass margin of 20-8.