Hawaii’s perfect women’s basketball record against local competition appeared to be in danger against undersized and undermanned Hawaii Pacific.
At least until the Division II Sharks ran out of players.
The Rainbow Wahine finally pulled away for a 66-51 win over HPU — which played the final 1:38 with only four players due to disqualifications — in front of 461 on Sunday afternoon at the Stan Sheriff Center.
“We struggled for a while today,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “I think that HPU brought a lot more energy and a lot more effort for the majority of the game. We definitely picked up our pace when we needed to.
“A lot of props to HPU for coming out and trying to beat us. I know they were short-handed, too. To come out and play the way they did, take it to us, hopefully we’ve learned a lesson that you can’t underestimate anybody.”
Big games from forward Kenna Woodfolk (20 points, career-high-tying 15 rebounds) and guard Courtney Middap (career-high 19 points) propelled the Wahine through the intra-island intrigue. The two juniors combined to shoot 20-for-24 at the foul line.
The Sharks were already light on bodies due to injuries to two prominent players, plus a suspension for another, and suited up only eight. Starr Rivera picked up her fifth foul moments into the third quarter and teammates Makenna Gambee, Kaylee Berry and McKenzie Alton joined her in the fourth.
The 5-on-4 madness was a first for HPU coach Reid Takatsuka.
“It was actually quite funny. It is what it is,” he said. “I’m extremely excited and proud of what we did tonight. You know, the score kind of got away from us, which is all right. But I liked our effort, I liked what our young kids are doing.”
Guard Amy Baum had 16 points to lead the Sharks (3-4), who used the game as an exhibition. They resume PacWest play at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Chaminade.
HPU dominated the second quarter Sunday, using an 11-0 run to take a brief lead, and trailed only 28-27 at halftime.
Shockingly, the Sharks put in two layups to begin the second half for a three-point lead.
That woke UH up. The Wahine went on a 12-0 run from that moment and took a 50-42 lead going into the fourth.
“They came out (for) the second half strong just like they did the first half, and we were like, ‘No, we can’t have this,’ ” Woodfolk said. “We stepped up our game after those two steals and layups and kept flowing from there.”
Still, HPU was within seven points with under five minutes to play, even while attempting only three free throws to UH’s 34.
Soon after final exams this week, the Wahine (3-7) head out for three challenging road games, starting with UNLV at the Duel in the Desert on Dec. 19.
“(This) is definitely something we can learn from,” Middap said. “We don’t want to be back in that feeling. We don’t want to be in another game where we underestimate our opponent and we dig ourselves a hole and have to come back from that.”
