No. 13 Sooners storm past Rainbow Wahine

First-year Hawaii women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman had a blunt explanation for Oklahoma’s game-breaking run.

The No. 13 Sooners separated with a 21-4 burst in the heart of the second half, turning a five-point game into a 74-49 blowout of UH to decide the four-team Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown title on Sunday.

"They would have had to have played below their level, and we would have had to continue to play really great basketball in order to beat them, just because of where we are right now," Beeman said. "So they did what a 13th-ranked team does: They capitalized on mistakes."

UH (2-5) completed its most brutal six-game portion of its nonconference schedule with a respectable effort before a crowd of 515 at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Wahine trailed the whole way, but did an admirable job of slowing down the Sooners (5-1) for about 25 minutes.

"It’s nice to be done with these six games," Beeman said of the stretch that included games against top-four powerhouses Baylor and Stanford. "I think that we have grown as a team, in more than just ‘everyone’s so proud of the way we’re competing.’ … We’ve gotten better.

"We need to take that intensity, that execution, into the rest of the preseason and into (Big West) conference."

Junior forward Kamilah Martin was UH’s lone entry on the all-tournament team after the Wahine went 1-2 for the second straight event. Martin scored all of her 11 points in the first half to go with 10 rebounds, and finished 3-for-13 from the field — 0-for-4 after halftime. UH was held to 30.6 percent shooting as a team.

"Second half, just couldn’t find my touch," Martin said. "It wasn’t necessarily what they did. I just gotta make layups."

Sooner or later, Oklahoma — which has been to a Big 12-record 13 straight NCAA tournaments — was bound to hit its stride. It shot 65.4 percent in the second half to net 46 points in the period.

OU dominated points in the paint (34-16), points off turnovers (14-4) and second-chance points (12-4).

Senior center Stephanie Ricketts started in the post instead of Diane Moore, who’d gotten the nod the first six games. The former UH softball standout spent much of her 20 minutes guarding OU’s 6-foot-6 junior center Nicole Griffin.

Ricketts scored inside to make it 38-33 OU with 15 minutes to play, but Griffin went right back at her for a three-point play.

After Vicky Tagalicod got it to 44-37 with free throws with 13 minutes left, the Sooners broke away, sparked by the play of point guard Morgan Hook (game-high 16 points). Meanwhile, UH was held scoreless for nearly a seven-minute span. Ashleigh Karaitiana ended the drought with a layup with 6:31 left and UH trailing 59-39. The game was effectively over and OU pulled its starters.

Beeman rattled off the ways her team fell short in crunch time.

"When we had a blown coverage in transition defense, they hit a 3. When we blew a pick-and-roll coverage, they turned the corner and went to the basket. They were strong enough to finish some 1-and-1’s. They got an offensive board on a free throw, that was a huge play. They tightened up their defense on us and we had a hard time scoring for a little bit. That’s what a No. 13 team does," she said.

UH does not play again until Utah visits for a 2 p.m. Saturday game.

Junior wing Shawna Kuehu missed her fifth straight game with concussion-like symptoms. Beeman said the Dec. 18 exhibition vs. Hawaii Pacific might be a good time to work Kuehu back in.

Oklahoma was coming off a 100-point outing vs. Oregon on Saturday, in which it hit a program record 17 3-pointers and won by 39.

But UH hung tough in an offensively challenged first half and trailed by only three at the break.

UH started 1-for-11 from the field, falling behind 9-2. The Wahine recovered with their first seven points from freshman Destiny King. However, King scored only two more points the rest of the way.

UH cut a 12-point deficit to 28-25 at halftime with a basket down low by Martin on a feed from Pua Kailiawa.