Laura Beeman was relieved this one didn’t count.
The Hawaii basketball coach nearly had to suit up herself as her shorthanded Rainbow Wahine doubled up Hawaii Hilo 70-35 in an exhibition on Wednesday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"Very, very ugly game," Beeman said after the teams combined for 46 turnovers. "We knew we were going to be very shallow in depth. I didn’t have depth. It was kind of a puddle."
For myriad reasons, UH had only nine players available on Wednesday night. But the nine were enough as Diane Moore scored 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting off the bench, Shawna Kuehu added 14 points, eight rebounds and four steals and Ashleigh Karaitiana had 13 points, eight boards and the team’s lone 3-pointer.
Beeman, UH’s second-year coach, has a little over a week to fine-tune things and get players healthy before the regular-season opener at Arizona State on Nov. 9.
One returning player outside the core of last year’s breakthrough 17-14 squad showed something under the bright lights. Moore, a 5-foot-10 senior who will see time in the post and on the wing, never exceeded 10 points in a game last season, but found her confidence as the tune-up contest went along.
"I like shooting from the outside and my teammates got to put me in a really good position to get shots up," Moore said. "Shooting’s kind of my thing."
The Wahine had 10 suited up, but senior Sydney Haydel, who was set to start, had to sit out the entire game instead because of a new earring. Four other players missed the game entirely or were limited because of recent illnesses.
Despite precious few natural post players, UH still controlled the glass (38-24) and managed to wear out the Division II Vulcans, collecting 17 steals and shooting 54 percent to 28.6 percent for the guests from the PacWest.
Destiny King — Haydel’s emergency sub into the starting lineup — had six steals, while new point guard Morgan Mason swiped five and blocked three shots.
"On defense, I felt like the young ladies that got the bulk of the minutes really dug deep and played hard (while) fatigued," Beeman said. "And actually we got better as the second half went on, defensively, which was nice to see. We kind of tightened some things up."
No Vulcans player scored more than seven points for UHH coach David Kaneshiro. His team had two assists against 28 turnovers after showing moments of competitiveness in the first half.
"We have a lot to work on, obviously, on both ends of the floor," Kaneshiro said. "Even though we were having a tough time, our players stuck together and kind of stayed with things."
UHH shot just 27.3 percent in the first half as the Wahine led 30-16 at the break.
