Wahine reach final with overtime win

Five-tenths of a second. That’s all that separated Hawaii from heart-attack victory and heart-wrenching overtime.

That’s the amount of time it took for the Rainbow Wahine to go from celebrating a win in regulation to having to dig deep for another five minutes.

Somehow Hawaii found enough to push the odd series of the final moments of regulation out of its collective memory and pull together to win two in a row for the first time this season.

It wasn’t easy. But it was satisfying.

The Wahine needed all of Monica DeAngelis’ 21 career-high points, especially the final game-clinching bucket with seven seconds left, to turn back Cincinnati 65-63 in Saturday’s second game of the Bank of Hawaii Invitational.

Hawaii’s victory, its first over a Big East opponent since 2003, sets up a true championship between the tournament’s 2-0 teams. The Wahine (4-6) face Alabama (9-3) in today’s 5 p.m. finale. The Crimson Tide rolled over LIU Brooklyn 80-58 in Saturday’s first game.

The Blackbirds (3-7) and Bearcats (7-5) meet for third place at 2:30 p.m.

"Wow, what a game," Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. "There’s nothing like going from thinking you’ve won to oh, oh, their basket was good. I give these guys a lot of credit to let it go and keep playing hard."

Asked to explain the final moments of regulation, Beeman responded: "I can’t."

The Wahine appeared to have the game won after Shawna-Lei Kuehu blocked Kayla Cook with 6 seconds left, preserving Hawaii’s 55-54 lead. But Vicky Tagalicod was fouled while bringing the ball up the court with officials determining there was five-tenths of a second left; Tagalicod made the second of two free throws to put the Wahine up 56-54 and into celebration mode.

It lasted less than a second. Chelsea Jamison threw a perfect pass to a streaking Dayeesha Hollins downcourt with Hollins beating the buzzer to send the game into extra time.

Hawaii trailed early in overtime, 60-56. The Wahine battled back to tie at 60 and again at 63, the last on Sydney Haydel’s free throw.

Cincinnati’s Lesha Dunn was called for a travel with 18 seconds to go and, following a timeout, Hawaii set in motion what would be the winning play. DeAngelis expected to get fouled but when the defense backed off, she drove, pulled up for a short jumper and got a friendly bounce.

"I was just looking for the best shot possible," said DeAngelis, the only player to go all 45 minutes. "I was prepared to play the whole game. The career high is nice but the win is more important."

Junior forward Kamilah Martin, playing all but four minutes, finished with her fourth double-double of the year: 12 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Junior guard Sydney Haydel added 12 points, all on four first-half 3-pointers, and freshman guard Ashleigh Karaitiana added 11 points before fouling out.

Hollins, a junior guard, led the Bearcats with 24 points before fouling out with 3:17 left in overtime.

"I thought my team showed a lot of heart, a lot of grittiness to come back being down in the last two minutes to get some stops and some scores," Cincinnati coach Jamelle Elliott said. "This is a tough place to play and Hawaii is always tough to play at home.

"We almost gave them a run for their money on their homecourt and we just came up a little short."

It was a ragged and physical first half. The Wahine, who tied a program low with four turnovers Friday, had that many in the first 13 minutes.

A couple of traveling calls on Hawaii proved costly as the Wahine saw their largest lead of the half (20-12 at 6:52) disappear. The Bearcats went on an 11-3 run, with Hollins scoring seven of her 11 first-half points, to tie it at 23 with 3:54 remaining.

Hawaii’s defense shut down Cincinnati the rest of the half. The Bearcats got only one shot off — an unsuccessful 3-point attempt by Jamison — the rest of the way while going 0-for-2 from the line.

The final minutes weren’t pretty for the Wahine, either, but Hawaii broke the fourth tie of the half with baskets from Haydel and Martin.

The drought continued for the Bearcats after intermission as Cincinnati missed its first 11 shots from the floor and both free-throw tries. Conversely, the Wahine were 4-for-9, with DeAngelis’ third and fourth 3-pointers highlighting an opening 10-0 streak that gave Hawaii its largest lead (37-23) with 14:40 left.

Alabama 80, LIU Brooklyn 58

Shafontaye Myers scored 14 points, 12 coming on four 3-pointers, to lead the Crimson Tide.

Alabama hit nine treys, eight in the first half when opening up a 47-27 lead. Ceilscia Farmer added 13 points and Alicia Mitcham 10.

The Blackbirds got 14 points from Cleandra Roberts.