Florida Gulf Coast lived up to its reputation for letting shots fly from long range.

But the Eagles’ outside shooting was only part of the problem for the Hawaii women’s basketball team.

FGCU arrived at the Stan Sheriff Center as one of the nation’s most prolific 3-point shooting teams and hit seven in the second half in sending the Rainbow Wahine basketball team to a 72-52 loss Thursday.

FGCU (9-2), of the Atlantic Sun Conference, made nine 3-pointers — 3.5 under its average entering the game — on 35 attempts, went 13-for-14 from the free-throw line and committed just two turnovers to win for the ninth time in its past 10 games.

FGCU, which started five guards, spread the court with four or five players often stationed outside the 3-point arc and repeatedly burned the Wahine on cuts to the basket for wide-open layups in scoring 22 points in the paint in the first half.

The Eagles did much of their damage in the second half from behind the arc, with Eglah Griffin hitting all four of her 3-pointers after the break to account for her 12 points.

"It was a hard game; we kind of got mixed up on defense sometimes," UH sophomore Vicky Tagalicod said. "The big thing this game was communication. We have to, as a team, talk on offense and on defense. That was the key thing."

After facing the guard-oriented Eagles, UH (5-9) closes the Pepsi Rainbow Wahine Invitational today at 4:30 p.m., against North Carolina State (9-3), which features three players 6 feet 2 and taller in its rotation.

"We have one more game and coming out tomorrow we’ll come out stronger, smarter and more physical," said Tagalicod, who led UH with 14 points. "You just have to move on and move forward."

UH committed just four turnovers in the first half against FGCU and pulled even at 27 with 3:20 left in the first half. But the Eagles ended the first half with a 10-0 run and converted UH’s 13 second-half turnovers into 15 points in pulling away.

"It was a really tough night across the board for us," UH head coach Dana Takahara-Dias said. "We did not play smart, we were unable to make adjustments when we needed to and we shot poorly from the free-throw line (11-for-21).

"Offensively sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way, sometimes the calls don’t go your way. But you can never have a bad night on defense and I thought we did not execute defensively."

FGCU guard Nicoya Jackson led all scorers with 19 points and guard Sarah Hansen added 15.

UH forward Kamilah Jackson recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Guard Sydney Haydel scored eight points off the bench on 4-for-4 shooting.

FGCU faces Alcorn State today at noon. NC State defeated Alcorn State 85-70 in Thursday’s first game.

Bows – C6 jump

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM UH’s Hauns Brereton went to the hoop for a second-half dunk against South Carolina State’s Luka Radovic.