Please welcome the King to Laura Beeman’s court.

Freshman Destiny King was all over the hardwood with 22 points and a halfcourt shot in her exhibition debut with the Hawaii women’s basketball team, and was the most notable difference in a 72-47 defeat of Hawaii-Hilo to kick off the Beeman era on Friday night.

A turnstile crowd of an even 600 at the Stan Sheriff Center witnessed the first game action under the new head coach. Beeman, a former USC and Los Angeles Sparks assistant, took over the program in March when Dana Takahara-Dias was not retained after an 11-19 season.

"I saw some really good things, a lot of room for improvement. But I think the foundation is there," Beeman said.

This result didn’t officially count, but it gave Beeman and her Wahine a chance to tweak things going into the regular-season opener at San Francisco on Nov. 9.

Beeman liked some of what she saw against the Division II Vulcans — especially the versatile 5-foot-10 guard/forward King, who shot 7-for-8 — but not all of it.

"It was kind of an ugly game in spurts, so it was hard to get a feel for the game," Beeman said. "Overall I think our effort was very good. We played hard. I don’t think our execution was consistently good."

The Rainbow Wahine outrebounded their smaller sister school 46-23, but didn’t win that battle as thoroughly at all positions as the new coach wanted. The Wahine also committed 23 turnovers to UHH’s 18, and sometimes looked vulnerable handling the ball.

It sometimes fell upon King to do so. She had three assists to go with six rebounds, and made all of her 3-point (three) and free-throw attempts (five).

"In high school (at Long Beach Poly) I’ve done the same thing," King said. "It was familiar playing the 1 … I think being a freshman, you can still be a leader, and that’s what Coach Beeman preaches to us all the time."

The team’s top returnee, junior forward Kamilah (Jackson) Martin, had 14 points and 12 rebounds off the bench after missing several recent practices with a blow to the head. Forward Diane Moore, a junior college transfer, added 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting.

A remade team — the starting five Friday was totally new — displayed some effective passing and spacing, with some quick assists by new point guard Monica DeAngelis, a transfer from Loyola Marymount.

DeAngelis, King, Moore, Ashleigh Karaitiana and Pua Kailiawa got the starting nod for UH. King could do no wrong in the first half, capping off the period with a halfcourt bank shot buzzer-beater.

"I just threw the ball up and walked away," a laughing King said. "I thought it was going to airball."

Former UH softball standout Stephanie Ricketts made her debut at center after joining the hoops team this week. She had a rebound in eight minutes.

UH-Hilo, 14-12 overall last season, was led by guard Jameia McDuffie, who scored 10 points.