Wahine get first victory

Good was good enough. Sort of.

It was good enough for the first victory of the season, but it was not good enough in the eyes of Hawaii coach Laura Beeman.

In a game that was closer than it should have been — according to UH’s first-year head coach — the Rainbow Wahine pushed through 23 turnovers and 15 missed free throws to turn back Tennessee-Martin 73-69 in Friday night’s second game of the Jack in the Box Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The young Rainbow Wahine (1-1) don’t have much time to clean up their collective act. They face a very confident Stanford team in today’s 7 p.m. contest. The fourth-ranked Cardinal (3-0) are coming in off a huge 71-69 upset of defending national champion Baylor (2-1) in Friday’s first game.

"I guess you could say it’s pick your poison," Beeman said. "We’d either be seeing a team that’s pretty high right now (Stanford) or a team that’s going to be mad (Baylor).

"It’s either good or bad that we’re playing Stanford. They definitely have the size advantage and a very high basketball IQ. We can play with them, but we have to be smart defensively and not have 23 turnovers."

UH shot only 20-for-35 from the line, including going 14-for-24 in the second half. Not taking advantage of adding to her team-high 18 points was junior forward Kamilah Martin, who hit 10 of her 17 free-throw attempts.

"We spend so much time on free throws, but I guess we need to spend more time," said Martin, who completed her 30th career double-double by adding 10 rebounds. "It shouldn’t have been as close as it was."

Joining Martin in double figures were junior transfer Pua Kailiawa (12 points), junior guard Kanisha Bello (11) and freshman swingman Destiny King (11). Freshman guard Ashleigh Karaitiana finished with 10 of the team’s 44 rebounds before fouling out with 47 seconds left.

Junior guard Jasmine Newsome led the Skyhawks (1-2) with a game-high 25 points, going 10-for-12 from the line. Junior guard Heather Butler added 18, including nine straight when UTM turned a near blowout at 44-29 into some real problems for Hawaii.

And when Skyhawks freshman guard Katie Schubert hit her second 3-pointer with 7:44 left, the Wahine found themselves trailing for the first time since early in the first half at 52-51.

Hawaii went nine minutes without a field goal, but stayed close. Martin sank both of her free throws with 5:02 to go, giving the Wahine the lead for good at 59-58.

The margin went to five (70-65) on Bello’s third 3-pointer, but Newsome answered with a three-point play to pull UTM to within 70-68. Bello’s jumper with 53 seconds left gave the Wahine some breathing room and Hawaii survived some frantic moments in the backcourt to pull it out.

"I thought we started off well, executed what we wanted to do, but turned it over too much," Beeman said. "But that’s to be expected with a young team.

"They did put pressure on us, but not that much pressure that we should have turned it over like we did. Some of it was self-inflicted and some of it was we couldn’t contain their speedy guards. The goal tomorrow is to get better."

And to play as they did in the opening 20 minutes. An 11-2 spurt helped the Wahine pull away to a 28-16 lead with 4:44 to go.

UH hit all three of its first-half 3-pointers during the run, with Bello hitting two and Diane Moore one.

Martin converted on a 3-point play with 2:40 left, giving her 10 points and the Wahine a 33-21 lead.