Laura Beeman wants a sixth man, too.

The first-year Hawaii women’s basketball coach called upon Rainbow Wahine fans to appear in force starting with today’s Big West Conference home opener against UC Irvine.

Hawaii split its first two road games in its return to the league last week. It lost 83-74 at Cal State Fullerton but rebounded to win 65-50 at UC Riverside.

“I’m excited to be home. I hope we get some support,” Beeman said on Tuesday. “That’s been my biggest disappointment. Everyone’s been so excited about the new staff and the new team. Well, then show up. You know me, I’m not afraid to say what I’m thinking. Show up and support us, then.”

In 12 nonconference home games this season, including two exhibitions, the average turnstile count is 702 for women’s hoops. That’s up slightly from Dana Takahara-Dias’ third and final year as coach last season, in which UH averaged 667 in 22 total home dates and went 11-19 overall.

Beeman noted the crowds in Fullerton and Riverside were comprised of at least half UH fans. She figures if her team can draw on the road, it should be able to lure UH fans to the Sheriff.

“I’m glad it’s on TV, that’s wonderful. Watch the replay on TV,” Beeman said. “But these kids deserve support and we need a sixth man like men’s basketball gets and women’s volleyball gets. We need support.”

Junior wing Shawna Kuehu, the team’s most prominent local player, is fully behind her new coach in this regard.

“It’s good for our fans to come out and see how this program is changing,” said Kuehu, who is averaging 12.5 points in Big West play. “It’s a good thing to come support your home school. Not only that, we’re the only D-I university in Hawaii and it’d be really good to see a lot of supporters come out and support women’s basketball, and women’s sports in general.”

UC Irvine offers a prime opportunity for UH to move into the top half of the league standings. However, the Anteaters are curiously better away (4-4) from the Bren Events Center than at home (0-6).

Beeman credited team defense in her team’s turnaround on the road. Junior guard Sydney Haydel, one of the team’s best defenders, is looking forward to converting stops into offense against the Anteaters.

“I think we had time to refocus after the Fullerton game and were able to reflect on ourselves,” Haydel said. “We really needed to bring it up a notch if we were going to make an impact in the Big West.”

Junior forward Kamilah Martin (team highs of 15.6 ppg, 9.5 rpg) has 931 career points. She is 69 away from becoming the program’s 17th 1,000-point scorer.

As part of the movement to get more fans to come out, Beeman announced Tuesday that each of the nine remaining home games will have a different honorary captain.

Today’s captain is former Wahine coach Vince Goo, who is the program’s winningest coach (334-166). Goo won two titles in the Big West and was named the conference’s Coach of the Year three times.

ALUMNAE GAME SUNDAY

The team recently announced it will continue its annual alumnae game Sunday at 2:30 p.m., just before the game against Long Beach State.

About a dozen alumnae are currently scheduled to participate in or attend the exhibition. Former UH players who haven’t been contacted and wish to join are asked to call assistant coach Gavin Petersen at 956-5032.