If the Hawaii women’s basketball team required any late-season motivation, the Rainbow Wahine may have just found some.

UH heads into the Big West tournament in an ornery mood upon discovery of the all-conference awards on Monday morning.

Seniors Kamilah Jackson and Shawna Kuehu were named to the second team, while junior Ashleigh Karaitiana took the Best Sixth Player award for her contributions off the bench.

That was the extent of UH’s awards, but Jackson’s placement was the main point of contention for UH. Had she repeated as a first-teamer, she would have been the first Wahine player to do so since Raylene Howard in 1998-99 and 1999-00 in the old WAC.

Jackson was among the conference leaders in points (15.5) and rebounds (9.7) but missed the last six games of the 16-game Big West regular season with a right foot sprain.

UH coach Laura Beeman was diplomatic on Monday’s Big West coaches conference call in discussing the awards, but she had more to say on the matter in a phone interview from California with the Star-Advertiser later in the day.

"When I heard the team read, I was completely shocked and disgusted, and I had a lump in my throat that, I don’t know the last time I’ve had a lump in my throat when it comes to kids like that," an irate Beeman said. "I just felt, I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now."

The league’s nine head coaches comprised the voting and were not allowed to vote for players on their own team. Beeman made sure to add she didn’t think Jackson was intentionally excluded by any one opponent.

As for motivation for the players?

"It’s done," Beeman said. "They are as (ticked) off and as upset for Mia (Jackson) as I am. And we’ve been about ‘team’ all year long. We haven’t been about Mia or Shawna or Destiny (King) or Ashleigh or Syd (Haydel). We made it about this team, and now it has become more about our team."

Jackson’s status is questionable for UH’s second-round game Wednesday at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid against an opponent to be determined. UH (16-12, 10-6) is the No. 3 seed and received a first-round bye.

Jackson, one of two 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound players in Wahine history, took the awards in stride and congratulated Kuehu and Karaitiana.

"No, I didn’t have any expectations," Jackson said. "Never really focus on that too much, so I’m not really worried about it, really."

Kuehu, the 2012-13 Best Sixth Player, successfully shifted to a starting job in 2013-14 and averaged 10.6 ppg (and a smattering of other helpful stats) while picking up her first second-team honor. She was grateful for that, but felt crushed for her teammate and friend of the past four seasons.

"I’m not gonna lie, that was really disappointing that she didn’t get it, as she is deserving of it," Kuehu said. "Nonetheless, we don’t play for these individual accolades. We’re about the bigger picture."

On the BWC first team, Big West Player of the Year Ashlee Guay of Cal State Northridge was joined by Ariana Elegado and Molly Schlemer of Cal Poly, Sydnee Fipps of UC Davis, Camille Buckley of UC Irvine and Brittany Crain of UC Riverside.

Fipps, Buckley and Crain belonged to teams that finished lower in the conference standings than UH. Crain led the league in scoring at 19.2 points per game.

Beeman thought the other awards were well-deserved. Jason Flowers received the Big West Coach of the Year award for leading Cal State Northridge to the league’s regular-season title.