Rainbow Wahine drop another road contest

Two teams jousting for position near the bottom of the Big West Conference played one of their finer games of the season at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday night.

Unfortunately for visiting Hawaii, host Long Beach State was sharper down the stretch in the 49ers’ 85-80 overtime victory.

The Rainbow Wahine surged in the third quarter — making up an eight-point deficit and going ahead 12 — but gave up their advantage in the fourth, and were unable to sweep their two-game road trip coming off a 56-54 victory Thursday at Cal State Northridge.

“They’re a very, very hot team right now. They’re playing very well,” UH coach Laura Beeman said of LBSU in a postgame phone interview. “We knew we had our hands full. … When it came down to it, it was an evenly played game throughout.”

UH (11-16, 4-10 Big West) concluded its league road schedule at 1-7 and now shares seventh place with LBSU (6-22, 4-10), but they are still a game ahead of last-place Cal State Fullerton. The Wahine will have to take home games against UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly next week to guarantee themselves a spot in the Big West tournament — the last-place team misses out.

Senior guard Sarah Toeaina had a big game of 24 points and a career-best 16 rebounds in Saturday’s loss. She shot 14-for-19 from the free-throw line — one below the program record in both makes and attempts — and surpassed Ayesha Brooks (1,131 points) for 14th on the UH career scoring chart.

Toeaina also committed seven turnovers, including an offensive foul on a screen with 32 seconds remaining in the extra period. UH dominated the glass 50-33 but committed 17 turnovers to LBSU’s seven.

“We were scoring the ball pretty well tonight, obviously, but when they call a foul that’s a little bit questionable, and then they go down and score (two Martina McCowan free throws), we had to come down and continue to put pressure on them,” Beeman said. “We just weren’t able to in that point in time.”

Lahni Salanoa added 16 points and 11 rebounds in defeat and freshman post Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard had her best game to date — nine points and six rebounds.

Five LBSU players scored in double figures, led by Shanaijah Davison’s 22 points.