Wahine ride ‘D’ to first Big West win

The game is called “Perfect Possession.”

The goal for the defense is to go 30 seconds without making a mistake. The reward is to get the shot-clock down to zero without giving up a basket.

Hawaii put what it does in practice into practice Saturday night against UC Riverside at the Stan Sheriff Center. The shot-clock violation came late, with 57 seconds remaining. It wasn’t a game-changer — the Rainbow Wahine were leading by 11 — but it put an exclamation point on the defensive effort that held the Big West’s scoring leaders, both team and player, well below what the Highlanders had been doing this season.

Hawaii got a career night from junior guard Destiny King and the Rainbow Wahine handed UC Riverside its 15th consecutive conference road loss, 69-58. King had career highs of 17 points, nine rebounds, six steals and 39 minutes in what UH coach Laura Beeman called her best performance in a Wahine uniform.

Senior guard Ashleigh Karaitiana added 15 points and also just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Her biggest contribution, however, might have been on defense, where she was the main obstacle in the way of junior guard Brittany Crain and her 23.9-point scoring average, seventh-best nationally. 

Crain, who scored 30-plus points her past two games, finished with 18. Nine of those came in the final 10 minutes on three 3-pointers, the last from NBA range with 26 seconds to go. 

“Our philosophy is ‘Defense wins games, offense is just fun,’ ” Beeman said after her team won its eighth straight conference game at home dating back to last season. “I think the last six minutes of the game we finally put some chemistry together and defensively we were hitting our stride.

“Ashleigh, the responsibility of being on Crain, and she did the job. We were trying to get the right mix of people in, getting Shawna (senior guard Kuehu) back into the game and with (senior guard) Morgan Mason not where she usually is (knee injury), thank goodness that (sophomore point guard) Bri Harris showed up and played a very mature game.”

Kuehu, who missed the past two games — both road losses — with various injuries, played just 18 minutes, but her impact was obvious. She finished with 11 points, including nine in the second half, hitting all four field-goal attempts, with five rebounds.

“That was big for our chemistry, getting Shawna back, and it was big getting our first conference win at home,” King said. “When we got that (shot-clock) violation, I was pumped.  We have pride in our defense and that showed tonight.”

It was defense that kept the Rainbow Wahine in the game when their shooting, both from the floor and the line, went cold. Hawaii out-rebounded UCR 49-30, with an 18-5 advantage on the offensive boards.

“We thought going in that it would be a really tough matchup for us, because of their size and their athleticism,” Highlanders coach John Margaritis said, his team 0-6 against Hawaii all-time. “Playing them has always been a challenge.

“That was the longest we’ve played zone. We had the lead late (47-43 with 10:10 to go) but then they hit a 3, got an easy layup (both by Karaitiana) and the fatigue set in. I don’t want to make any excuses. The bottom line … Hawaii earned it. Their defense was a big part of it.”

The Highlanders had come in averaging a league-high 70.3 points, just ahead of Hawaii’s 70.1. They also had not won a road game in Big West play since Feb. 9, 2013 at Cal State Fullerton.

After trailing early, Hawaii’s lead grew as big as 20-10, with 9:33 left. UCR cut it to 30-26 at halftime and regained the lead at 47-44. 

Another 3-pointer by Crain put the Highlanders ahead for the last time at 52-51 at the 6:59 mark. The Wahine scored seven unanswered points in a 55-second span to go ahead for good, with Karaitiana’s fourth trey pushing the margin to 58-52 with 5:42 to go.

UCR, down to seven players, four of whom had four fouls, had little left in losing their second straight. 

Hawaii will practice Sunday and Monday before leaving Tuesday. The Wahine are at UC Davis on Thursday and UC Irvine on Saturday before returning to host conference unbeaten Long Beach State on Jan. 29.

Saturday

Hawaii 69, UC Riverside 58

UC Davis 64, CS Fullerton 59

Long Beach State 81, UCSB 44

Cal Poly 63, CSUN 54

Halftime — Hawaii 30, UCR 26

3-point goals — UCR 5-16 (Crain 4, Martin). Hawaii 5-16 (Karaitiana 3, Segovia, Harris). Steals — UCR 8 (Çrain 2, Wilson 2, Martin, Adams, Curry, Morrison). Hawaii 8 (King 6, Mason, Kuehu). Turnovers — UCR 14 (Curry 4, Ito 3, Martin 2, Crain 2, Wilson, Nyingifa, TEAM). Hawaii 19 (Karaitiana 4, Mason 3, Huff 2, Harris 2, Kuehu 2, Segovia, King, Wimbley, Redmon, Sampton, Morris). Assists — UCR 12 (Wilson 5, Martin 3, Curry 2, Crain 2). Hawaii 14 (Karaitiana 4, King 4, Harris 2, Kuehu 2, Huff, Segovia). Blocked shots — UCR 1 (Adams). Hawaii 1 (King). Technical fouls — CSUN none. Hawaii none. Officials — Rick Thorne, Cathi Cornell, Tim Tamashiro. A — 1,834.