Wahine basketball work it inside

On the Icardo Center’s predominantly blue court, the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team did most of its work in the unpainted area inside the key on Wednesday.

Of UH’s 22 field goals 19 came from inside the lane and the Rainbow Wahine pulled away from CSU Bakersfield 65-55 to complete a sweep of their three-game holiday season road trip.

“I think our post players were probably responsible for about 75 percent of our offense,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview from Bakersfield, Calif.

“We knew we were going to have a bit of a height advantage, our interior passing was pretty good tonight and they did a very good job scoring for us.”

UH senior Destiny King led the Wahine with 13 points, with all four of her field goals coming inside the paint. The senior guard/forward also contributed six rebounds, five assists, two steals and blocked a shot.

Center Kalei Adolpho scored UH’s first three field goals and finished with 10 points and five rebounds. Connie Morris scored all 12 of her points in the second half on 6-for-8 shooting off the bench. Megan Huff added 10 points and UH’s post players shot a combined 15-for-20 for the Rainbow Wahine (7-5), who improved to 5-0 on the road this season.

“Our emphasis was to get the ball inside,” Beeman said. “We knew they were going double team us and it was just trying to get the ball out of the paint cleanly … so we didn’t turn it over and either go right back inside or get a good clean look from outside.”

Guard Briana Harris also finished with 10 points and hit both of UH’s 3-pointers while the Wahine went 2-for-14 from behind the arc. She broke UH’s 0-for-10 start by hitting a 3 just before the third-quarter buzzer and drained another from the top to give the Wahine a 62-50 lead with 1:40 left.

UH shot 45 percent from the field, went 19-for-27 from the free-throw line and held the turnover count to 14 while earning a sweep of a home-and-home nonconference series with CSUB (2-12). UH won the first meeting 74-60 on Nov. 27 in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Classic.

Guard Alyssa Shannon led the Roadrunners on Wednesday with 15 points and four assists and forward Batabe Zempare added 14 points and seven rebounds. CSUB scored 40 points in the paint but went 1-for-7 from 3-point range.

The Wahine are scheduled to return to Honolulu today and head straight to practice after landing to prepare for Saturday’s game against Pennsylvania at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Quakers (7-2) are already on Oahu and face BYU Hawaii today at 2 p.m. in Laie.

“The girls will rest their legs on the plane and we’ll get on the court (today) to go over some Penn stuff to make sure we’re good with what they’re going to run,” Beeman said. “It’s just kind of the way the schedule works. I think the girls feel very good about winning on the road and I know they are very excited about getting back home.”

The Wahine will make their first appearance at the Sheriff Center since an exhibition win over BYUH on Dec. 10 and take on Penn in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. The UH men’s team faces Howard in the opener at 5:30 p.m.

“We’re excited to be back in the Stan Sheriff Saturday night,” Beeman said. “It’ll be really fun to play after the guys. Hopefully the fans will stick around and I know we’ll have a lot of energy and I think that’ll be a really fun environment.”