Huff leads UH past Long Beach State

There are no style points given in basketball.

A win is a win, whether it’s pretty, ugly or pretty ugly.

The beauty for Hawaii, however, was in using Thursday’s 60-42 victory over Long Beach State to jump over the 49ers into second place in the Big West standings.

The Rainbow Wahine (15-9, 8-3) got a career night from sophomore center Megan Huff, who finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds — 11 on the defensive boards — to win their fifth straight. It was also the fifth consecutive victory over the 49ers (17-6, 6-3), who dropped to fourth, a half-game behind UC Davis.

“I don’t think we’ll ever play pretty,” said Hawaii coach Laura Beeman, whose team overcame 21 turnovers. “If you get the win, you get the win, and we dominated Long Beach in every phase.

“What I like about our team is it’s a different player stepping up every night. The other night, it was Destiny King. Tonight, it was Huff.”

Long Beach State had no answer for the 6-foot-3 Huff. She had 13 points in the second quarter as Hawaii pulled away for good, outscoring the 49ers 18-4.

“I was focused throughout the game tonight, wanted to play with the highest intensity I could,” Huff said. “Kalei (senior center Adolpho) said, ‘They aren’t guarding you.’ So I took advantage.”

Hawaii took advantage of the absence of The Beach’s leading scorer, Raven Benton, who was 0-for-8 in 11 minutes before leaving with an undisclosed injury. Benton, who came in averaging 12.8 points, played briefly in the third before sitting the rest of the night.

“That hurt a lot,” 49ers coach Jody Wynn said of Benton’s absence. “But I’m not going to blame it at all on that injury.

“I think the 31 first-half shots where we shoot 16 percent, and 0 percent from the 3-point line … mean, you gotta make a couple shots. Credit their defense, but I think (we) got shots. You gotta be able to withstand some of the physicality and we have to finish.”

The Wahine defense rarely allowed the 49ers second-chance shots, with 35 defensive rebounds to LBSU’s 11 on offense. Long Beach State did break loose for three 3-pointers in the second half, including junior forward Madison Montgomery’s trey that pulled the 49ers to within 44-32 early in the fourth.

Montgomery finished with a team-high nine points for Long Beach State, which saw its six-game win streak snapped.

The 49ers made things interesting when they pulled to within 47-36, but baskets by Huff and King gave the Wahine breathing room at 51-36. Consecutive 3-pointers by senior forward Ashleigh Karaitiana and senior guard Marissa Wimbley jump-started a 9-0 run that sealed the victory.

“It was a great game for us,” Beeman said. “I saw major growth in a sophomore (Huff) and our players didn’t get frustrated by Long Beach’s defense when they could have.

“Some teams dance on offense. We danced on defense. And we looked good dancing.”

Hawaii has a week off before hosting third-place UC Davis (14-9, 7-3) next Thursday. Holding onto second place is crucial; the top two teams get a double-bye into next month’s Big West tournament semifinals.

“Credit Hawaii, they stepped up, passed the ball beautifully to one another,” Wynn added. “They made each other better.

“They’re bigger than us everywhere. Huff had a double-double in the first half. That’s pretty big.”

Sophomore guard Sarah Toeaina added nine points for the Wahine, who outrebounded the 49ers 52-30. In their Jan. 7 meeting at The Pyramid, Hawaii had a 52-29 rebounding edge.

It was a ragged first quarter not reflective of two of the top four scoring teams in the conference, not when the quarter ended with Hawaii leading 10-8. The majority of the points came in the final 85 seconds, with the 49ers outscoring the Wahine 6-4.

The Beach went cold for the next 6:12 as Hawaii went off on a 10-0 run, eight points coming from Huff. Huff had her third double-double of the year by halftime — 13 points, 11 rebounds — finishing the half with a 3-point play and a muscle layup to put the Wahine ahead 28-12.

The Wahine’s 30-15 rebound lead expanded to 40-23 by the end of the third quarter, with Huff tying her career high (13) early in the period. Hawaii enjoyed its biggest lead to that point at 37-18 with 3:08 left in the third only to see Long Beach State outscore UH 9-3 to cut the margin to 40-27 heading into the fourth.

BIG WEST WOMEN

Thursday

Hawaii 60, Long Beach State 42

UC Riverside 90, Cal State Fullerton 43

UC Santa Barbara 80, UC Irvine 62

Saturday

Cal State Fullerton at UC Davis

UC Riverside at Cal Poly

UC Irvine at CSUN

UC Santa Barbara at Long Beach State

Thursday

Long Beach State at UC Riverside

CSUN at UC Santa Barbara

Cal Poly at Cal State Fullerton

UC Davis at Hawaii, 7 p.m., at Stan Sheriff Center

HAWAII 60, LONG BEACH ST. 42

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 28, Long Beach State 12

3-point goals — LBSU 3-17 (Gertz 2-3, Montgomery 1-4, Sawyer 0-1, Webster 0-1, Jackson 0-1, Dooley 0-1, Benton 0-2, Kim 0-2, Hascheff 0-2). Hawaii 6-19 (Karaitiana 2-2, Toeaina 1-3, Crawford 1-4, Wimbley 1-5, Harris 1-5). Steals — LBSU 11 (Wilson 4, Jackson 2, Hascheff 2, Sawyer, Benton, Kim). Hawaii 4 (Wimbley 2, Harris 2). Blocked shots — LBSU 1 (Montgomery). Hawaii 3 (Toeaina, Huff, Adolpho). Turnovers — LBSU 13 (Jackson 3, Sawyer 2, Montgomery 2, Wilson 2, Benton, Gertz, Hascheff, Dooley). Hawaii 21 (Harris 4, Toeaina 3, Karaitiana 3, Huff 3, King 3, Le. Salanoa 2, Crawford, Wimbley, Adolpho). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Brandon Self, Benito Luna, Daniel Coda. A—NA.