Wahine hope to regroup following Christmas break

In its previous nonconference tournament, the Hawaii women’s basketball team teetered on the brink of a breakthrough, peered over the edge … and backed away.

UH coach Dana Takahara-Dias is still trying to get the Rainbow Wahine (4-8) to take that collective leap of faith.

"The last thing we always talk about is building trust among the team," the third-year coach said. "You add two new players last week and it was wonderful, so now we have to see if we can also continue that trust and chemistry as we rebuild."

With their last of four round-robin tournaments starting today against Alcorn State (2-7), the Wahine hope to expand on their recent positives — the consistent play of forward Kamilah Jackson, along with the solid additions of wing Vicky Tagalicod and center Kalei Adolpho — and brush aside the nagging negatives. Those include turnovers (19.4 per game) and free-throw shooting (67.9 percent).

UH was given five days off over the Christmas holiday to regroup following a devastating 62-57 collapse against UC Davis on Dec. 20, costing the team the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Shootout title at the last second. Whatever sparks of momentum the team built in wins the previous two days against Portland State and Denver were forgotten in that moment, but Takahara-Dias is trying to rekindle them with a no-nonsense resumption of practices.

"Taking off five days in the middle of a season is always risky, but we trusted our players to make sure they continued their conditioning and they continue their basketball," Takahara-Dias said. "Only time will tell if that’s true or not, when we face competition (today). But sometimes a team also needs a break and a breather."

Jackson, UH’s top scorer and rebounder (15.4 and 10.1) focused on her free throws over the break with teammates Sydney Haydel, Alissa Campanero and Breanna Arbuckle. The 5-foot-11 sophomore has five straight double-doubles going back to UH’s East Coast road trip at the start of the month.

"I definitely think we played some good teams in all of our tournaments, and we just gotta finish strong with this tournament," Jackson said. "I actually prefer the tournaments (to stand-alone games). Tournaments are fun, you don’t get that much time to work on things so you have to learn quickly, so that’s what I like as a person."

Tagalicod provided a much-needed perimeter punch with the recent loss of sophomore wing Shawna-Lei Kuehu for the season for personal reasons. The Hilo High graduate and USC transfer averaged 10.7 points and five rebounds in starting all three games in the past tournament.

It was a thrill for a player who hadn’t played a real game in about four years because of various injuries.

"I was nervous for three days before my first game," Tagalicod said. "I was nervous, didn’t eat, up until tip-off I was still nervous. It took me 2 to 3 minutes to get up and down the court and get into the flow of the game. Once I started scoring and just touching the ball, it just fell into place."

She helped Campanero with ball-handling duties against Davis, notching five assists and one turnover.

Combined with Adolpho (9.0 points and 11.0 rebounds) and shooting guard Kanisha Bello finding her stroke (2-for-4 on 3-pointers in each of the past three games) the Wahine have potential to grow heading into their Western Athletic Conference opener Jan. 14.

However, UH will be challenged heading into the new year against Florida Gulf Coast (8-1) and North Carolina State (7-3) on Thursday and Friday.