It was lightning in a bottle, captured for 15 consecutive games. A special team that had a rare chemistry and character, a unique blend of work ethic and ethos, a mix of passion and compassion.

One that comes around maybe once or twice in a coaching career.

The Hawaii women’s basketball team was all that and more to Laura Beeman, so much so that even two days removed from Friday’s season-ending loss at Saint Mary’s, it was painful for the Rainbow Wahine’s third-year coach to discuss and dissect.

The bottle had shattered. The shards remained sharp.

"It’s really tough, really, really tough," Beeman said of the 23-9 squad losing twice in seven days after winning 15 straight. "I think the loss in the Big West tournament (to Cal State Northridge) was hanging over our heads. Everyone wanted to win that title, the NCAA berth, and it definitely haunted us.

"You have to have some luck to win the big games. We were lucky that we were fairly healthy during the regular season. The only times we lost we weren’t, and that’s frustrating. I truly believe if we had been healthy, we wouldn’t have been playing in the WNIT."

Instead, Hawaii was for the third consecutive season, falling again in the first round. The overtime loss to the Gaels mirrored the roller coaster of a ride the Rainbow Wahine took en route to their first regular-season title since 1997-98.

Hawaii bookended that streak with two losses at the front and back. Two came as the Wahine opened Big West play on the road with injured senior guard Shawna-Lei Kuehu on the bench and two in the postseason against CSUN and Saint Mary’s, both with senior point Morgan Mason slowed by an ankle severely sprained on Feb. 19 against UC Irvine.

Beeman, named the Big West Coach of the Year, didn’t want to make excuses. Injuries are part of the game, but it did mess with the chemistry, the lineup and the rotations. So, too, did the disparity in foul calls and free-throw opportunities in the last two games.

In a 67-60 loss to CSUN in the conference championship, the Matadors were 22-for-34 from the line compared to the Rainbow Wahine’s 12-for-16. Last Friday, the host Gaels were 38-for-49 from the line to Hawaii’s 18-for-23 in a game that saw five Rainbow Wahine foul out in losing 92-88 in OT.

"It’s one of the reasons you want a home game," Beeman said. "The frustration is over the inconsistency, and during the offseason I want to sit down with mainland officials, review our games and get some advice as to why we’re not getting the same calls. We had a total of eight players foul out the entire season and then we have five in one game …

"I don’t fault Saint Mary’s, but they didn’t even have a replay monitor. There were at least two calls that should have been reviewed and I think those would have been reversed in our favor. If you’re going to host, you should have a replay monitor and the crowd to support it."

The game officially drew 279, with Beeman estimating a third were Hawaii fans. The Rainbow Wahine more than doubled that for every home game since Big West play started, peaking with 3,491 fans for senior night, the largest crowd since senior night in 1998.

That the fans came to see the team and give seniors Kuehu, Mason, Ashleigh Karaitiana and Shawlina Segovia a tremendous sendoff is one of the highlights of the year for Beeman. She hopes that it shows a resurgence of interest in women’s basketball as a whole and Hawaii in particular.

The success that Hawaii had — its best record since 23-8 in 1997-98 — has spiked recruiting interest locally, on the mainland and internationally. Beeman and staff need to restock after losing nearly 50 percent of the team’s scoring, 40 percent of its rebounding and the immeasurable: heart.

Hawaii has one oral commitment, from Olivia Crawford, a senior point guard at Lakes High School in Lakewood, Wash. Beeman said that she wasn’t going to sign players to fill scholarships but "to fill with the right people who are going to fit in with our team.

"We’ll continue to bring in kids as late as June. We’ll continue to look for the big combo guards like we had (in Kuehu and Karaitiana) and we’re looking locally, more at 2016 and ’17, hoping we’ll have young ladies who want to stay home and continue to build on what we have, be the next Shawna-Lei Kuehu."

Kuehu finished ranked in the program’s top 10 in 12 career categories, including sixth in points (1,227), seventh in blocks (123) and eighth in rebounds (641). She is one of 10 players to score at least 1,000 points with at least 500 rebounds.

The Rainbow Wahine expect to return nine players, including all-conference honorable-mention guard Destiny King, and could get a 10th if Segovia is granted another year of eligibility. They also have 6-3 junior center Brianna Kennedy, who sat out after transferring from Loyola Marymount.

Also back will be Big West Sixth Woman of the Year Megan Huff, whom Beeman called a "phenomenal athlete." The 6-foot-3 freshman center joined the basketball team in late December after playing for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team and is in rare company as one of a handful of players to make a postseason tournament in two sports.

Expected to be back also is Kalei Adolpho, a 6-1 center who played both volleyball and basketball for three seasons but spent last fall solely playing volleyball. Both Huff and Adolpho will be on basketball scholarships.

Beeman herself expects to be back for a fourth season, saying there are basketball championships yet to be won and NCAA berths to attain at Hawaii. She will do the standard postseason evaluations with her staff, which all have her blessing to accept opportunities to further their careers if offers arise.

"They are as heartbroken as I am with how it ended," Beeman said, "but they are as happy and prideful for the tremendous season we had. We won 15 in a row, we competed with some of the best teams in the country, we won a conference title for the first time in a long time. No one can take that away from us.

"Right now, I’ll be taking some time and enjoy being home for a while, take the dog out and go for swims."