Disciplined chaos.
It might have looked like a mad scramble in the final 17 seconds Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center, but the Hawaii women’s basketball team has practiced for the situation it found itself in against New Mexico State.
Up by 3 points? Prevent the 3-pointer.
The Rainbow Wahine did just that, extending their perimeter defense far enough that Erica Sanchez’s attempt from the far left corner came up as short as the Aggies’ late rally. Hawaii hung on for the 51-48 victory, moving to 2-1 in Western Athletic Conference play for the first time since 2002-03.
"We take pride in our defense and we did what we had practiced," said sophomore forward Kamilah Jackson, who led UH with 16 points and 11 rebounds, her 10th double-double of the season. "It feels great, having more wins than losses in the conference. We need to keep that momentum and take it on the road."
Hawaii (7-11 overall) heads out for games at Nevada on Thursday and Fresno State on Saturday and "hopefully we take the confidence we’ve had from these two wins, take everything good that comes with winning with us," added freshman center Kalei Adolpho, who finished with seven points, five rebounds and a block.
"We had a hard loss on the road (83-67 at San Jose State on Jan. 14). It wasn’t our best game. We knew we wanted to get off to a better start at home."
The Wahine likely won’t get the free-throw chances that they enjoyed the past two games. Thursday, they were 22-for-28, compared to Louisiana Tech’s 4-for-7.
Saturday, Hawaii made its first 13 free throws, finishing 17-for-22; NMSU (4-15, 1-13 WAC) was 2-for-4.
Wahine coach Dana Takahara-Dias called it home-court advantage.
"The crowd was wonderful, once again, and how can you not play inspired with them behind you," she said. "It’s huge for us to get two wins at home.
"We started slow, took a while to get over the hump, but we settled into a rhythm. I’m really proud that, after six turnovers in the first 10 minutes, we had just four the rest of the way."
The 10 turnovers is a season low and the fewest since seven against Tennessee-Chattanooga in December 2006. It didn’t start that way.
The Wahine’s points (four) didn’t catch up with their turnovers (four) until Adolpho scored at the 16:51 mark, pulling Hawaii to within 5-4.
Trailing for most of the half, the Wahine took their first lead at 18-17 when Jackson hit her fifth and sixth free throws with 7:30 to go. Alissa Campanero’s feed to Adolpho pushed it to 20-17, but Tabytha Wampler answered with two of her 15 first-half points to close to 20-19.
Wampler’s putback tied it at 25 with 94 seconds left. Jackson continued her perfection from the line, finishing 8-for-8 for the half, with her final two giving Hawaii a 27-25 lead at intermission.
The Aggies didn’t take a free-throw attempt until 4 minutes into the second half. NMSU didn’t make one until Kaitlyn Soto hit both to spark a 6-0 run that whittled Hawaii’s eight-point lead down to two, 44-42, with 7:02 to go.
The Aggies cut it to one twice, both on baskets by Wampler, the last at 49-48 with 2:19 remaining. Campanero’s lone points came from the line with 25.4 seconds to go — "Stingy two points, but they were huge," Takahara-Dias said. They provided the final margin.
Wampler finished with 24 points, going 11-for-19 from the field. Soto finished with 12.
Of concern for Hawaii was the lack of 3-point shooting. The Wahine were 0-for-10 Saturday.
"We’ll continue to shoot them," Takahara-Dias said. "We need to have a complete offense, not just in the paint. We’ll get there."
The win ties the series with the Aggies at 15.
