UH vows not to overlook winless UCSB

Basketball’s version of "The Hunger Games" comes to the Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday.

Winless UC Santa Barbara is starving for a victory and Hawaii is craving to maintain its winning streaks — five straight this season, 10 consecutive home in conference dating back to last.

Regardless of where they sit in the Big West standings, the Rainbow Wahine are not looking past the Gauchos, not when momentum and continued improvement are so key at this point of the year. And not when a win over UCSB would lift Hawaii into a first-place tie with Saturday’s opponent, Cal Poly, in the Mustangs’ lone game of the week.

"We’re ready to get two more (wins), but our mind-set has been to take care of each game as it comes, and that means we need to take care of Santa Barbara," Wahine senior guard Shawna-Lei Kuehu said. "We know we have things to work on.

"There’s been these scoring droughts in the middle of the halves, from like the 16- to the 5-minute mark. Fortunately, our defense has kept us ahead. We want to keep it going. Winning is fun."

The season has been anything but for UCSB, particularly in the past two weeks. The Gauchos scored a season-high 74 points but lost by 15 at UC Riverside.

That was followed by losses to Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine by a combined seven points. Last Saturday likely was the most frustrating. UCSB led at UC Davis 45-36 with 4:32 to go only to be outscored 12-6 in overtime, falling 60-54.

"No question they’re dangerous and incredibly hungry," Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. "And they have nothing to lose at this point, which is something you have to be concerned with.

"It’s like a wounded animal. You never know how they’ll react to you. Sometimes they come at you very aggressive."

And sometimes they bite. Which would be the case for the Wahine’s RPI if they lose to the Gauchos. (Hawaii is at 91, while UCSB is No. 341 out of 348 Division I teams).

"If we were to lose to them, there goes the RPI," said Beeman, whose preseason schedule included North Carolina (RPI 17), Stanford (24) and Cal (25). "We are not going to overlook them, even if it’s a team we feel we should beat by 30.

"This week is about finishing big at home, because our next four of seven are on the road. We need to take care of business."

That includes taking care of the ball. UCSB junior guard Jasmine Ware is third in the Big West in steals (1.8 per game) and sophomore point guard Onome Jemerigbe is tied for 16th at 1.2 per game.

Hawaii counters with three players in the top 20 in steals per game: Kuehu and senior guard Ashleigh Karaitiana both at 1.4, and reigning conference player of the week Destiny King, a junior guard at 1.2 per game.

"It was nice to see Destiny get that recognition," Beeman said. "She does so many things that don’t always show up in the stats. It’s nice that people noticed and said, ‘Hey, that girl is getting it done at Hawaii.’ "

Last week, King averaged 13.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the victories over Long Beach State and CSUN. She was exceptional at the free-throw line, going 6-for-7 against the 49ers, including four in the final 40 seconds of the 72-64 victory, and 9-for-10 in the 64-59 defeat of the Matadors.