Rainbow Wahine seniors changed the game

Diverse backgrounds and disparate roles came together for one common purpose among Hawaii’s 2014 crop of women’s basketball seniors.

It’s not OK to be OK anymore.

Kamilah Jackson, Sydney Haydel, Pua Kailiawa and Diane Moore helped turn around fortunes for the Big West-contending Rainbow Wahine over the past two seasons. They will be traditionally honored following Thursday’s home finale against UC Santa Barbara.

At next week’s Big West tournament in California, the third-place Wahine (15-11, 9-5) will aim for their first NCAA tournament berth since 1998.

"I think what they were able to do is really make a shift of personality and really try to instill a winning attitude these last two years," second-year coach Laura Beeman said of the seniors. "We want to win. We want to win our conference, we want to get to the NCAA tournament. We have goals in mind, and we want the respect we feel we deserve. And I think they’ve done a good job of really trying to forge that attitude. It’s not easy, particularly with a coaching change."

UH has decided to honor four players, and not five as previously expected because Shawna Kuehu has elected to pursue an additional year of eligibility.

Kuehu’s appeal to the NCAA (she sat out most of the 2011-12 campaign while pregnant) is being processed and UH is "confident," Beeman said, that the year will be awarded after previous similar circumstances are reviewed.

In the event Kuehu’s petition is unsuccessful, Beeman said she will be honored in next season’s senior festivities.

Jackson, UH’s leading scorer and rebounder who has missed four straight games with a sprained right foot, is considered a game-time decision for UCSB.

The pride of Kau High

The Big Island has a rich girls basketball tradition. It’s not one typically shared, however, by tiny Kau High in the town of Pahala.

Thus, Pua Kailiawa’s self-expectations were low for extending her playing career, even as a center with size at 6 feet 2.

But she had a shooting touch and latched on at Umpqua Community College in Oregon for two seasons. While there, she showed something to a new coach willing to take a chance; of this graduating class, she was the only player recruited by Beeman.

She’s become increasingly vital in UH’s frontcourt, starting five of the past six games with Jackson out. After posting her first career double-double last week against Long Beach State, Kailiawa is up to 5.1 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.

"It’s pretty amazing, actually, because I know my high school we weren’t great at anything, really," Kailiawa said. "So, coming out of there and coming to here, it’s just an experience I’ll forever cherish."

Kailiawa will graduate this semester in sociology and is considering graduate school at UH.

The long-distance architect

Adjustments came on multiple fronts for Diane Moore.

A 5-10 forward from Nagoya, Japan, Moore had to settle in as a Division I player out of Diablo Valley Junior College while getting used to living in California, then Hawaii.

And, upon her arrival in Manoa, there was a different head coach than the one who recruited her, Dana Takahara-Dias. To top it off, Moore, an architecture major, had a demanding curriculum that forced her to miss some practices.

"Probably the intensity of everything, school, basketball, practice, all the extra work was two, three levels higher, and they expect more," Moore said of D-I ball. "So just getting yourself to meet that expectation is hard. At the beginning I was struggling a little bit. But looking back, I think I was able to adapt to it a lot better than when I started."

Moore has seen action in 23 games this season and occasionally sparked the team off the bench with her shooting. She will graduate next spring and plans to enter grad school.

The defensive stopper

Sydney Haydel has waited her turn.

"I definitely remember my freshman year, watching senior night and just thinking it was the most grand thing I’d seen," the 5-8 guard said. "It was just such a humbling experience to have all the fans here and have everyone’s family here, and knowing in four years that’s where I’d be. It’s such a beautiful celebration of the players, the families and the coaching staff and the roles that they’ve played here as a program. I’m just excited to go through that myself and be a part of that myself."

A one-time post player at Harvard-Westlake School, the four-year member of the UH backcourt became an integral piece in last season’s turnaround and earned Big West Defensive Player of the Year honors while tasked with stopping opponents’ best perimeter players.

The Woodland Hills, Calif., native is the only Wahine to start all 26 games this season and is averaging a career-high 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds.

But she’s always been defense-first, and has contributed heavily to UH’s league-best marks in scoring defense, field-goal percentage defense, 3-point percentage defense and rebounding defense. She will graduate in business this semester and weigh her options this summer between playing overseas, coaching or a business career.

The double-double machine

There’s not much that hasn’t been said about Kamilah Jackson, the most decorated Wahine player of the last decade.

Though Jackson she of the exclusive two-player 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound club is questionable to play on senior night, she pledges to be seen and heard.

"Either way, I’m still going to support my team, still going to cheer for my team no matter what," Jackson said. "It’s still a team sport, it’s still about my team and it’s still about us winning whether I play or not. It’s just being there for my team and being the vocal leader that I am."

Jackson just does her thing down low with sublime footwork and leverage; she thrived both before and after UH’s coaching change to Beeman. She’s fourth in UH history in points (1,538) and second in rebounds (1,167) and is in the NCAA’s top 10 in active career leaders in rebounding. She has 55 career double-doubles and made 55 straight starts before her recent injury.

Jackson has fond memories of past senior nights and hopes for one more to remember.

"I’m hoping for a lot of support," she said. "(The fans) have been so loyal for us throughout the season, throughout the year. And Ijust hope they’ll support us one last time on senior night, because this will be the last time to see us play."

Jackson will graduate in family resources and plans to pursue a pro basketball career.