After a surprise visit Thursday night, Sarah Toeaina turned in a career-best performance in the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team’s season-opening win at Grand Canyon on Friday.

Toeaina’s mother, former Rainbow Wahine volleyball player Maile Golden-Toeaina, made the trip from Washington to Phoenix and was in the crowd as Sarah sparked UH with a career-high 14 points in a 74-41 win at Grand Canyon University Arena.

"She was texting me as if she was back at home," Sarah Toeaina said in a phone interview after the game. "So when I saw her before team dinner (Thursday) night I had tears of joy and I just jumped into her arms.

"It did calm me down a little just to see her in the stands. Just a familiar face as if I were back home."

Toeaina came off the bench in the first quarter, promptly hit her first five shots and finished 6-for-8 from the field. Sophomore forward Megan Huff added 12 points and eight rebounds in 14 minutes and UH got 43 points from its bench while posting its largest margin of victory in an opener since 1997.

"It was a great team win, they played with great energy. They had a lot fun with each other on the court." said UH coach Laura Beeman, who improved to 2-2 in season openers, all on the road.

"Are we pleased with the win? Yes. Are there a lot of things we need to improve on? Absolutely."

All 10 UH players who saw action recorded at least four points and 14 minutes. UH shot 41.5 percent from the field and hit five 3-pointers while holding GCU to 24.5 percent shooting. The Wahine also made their first 13 free throws and finished 15-for-17 from the line.

UH had 18 assists — led by senior Ashleigh Karaitiana’s five — against 12 turnovers and held a 47-33 rebounding advantage.

"That was one of our goals, to improve our assist-to-turnover ratio," Beeman said. "We have to share the ball in our style of offense."

The Rainbow Wahine will bus to Flagstaff, Ariz., and face Northern Arizona on Sunday.

With the NAU campus at nearly 7,000 feet, Beeman said being able to distribute the minutes throughout the rotation on Friday is "going to help us when we go to altitude because we’re going to need that energy."

Briana Harris, Toeaina and Karaitiana drained 3-pointers in the first quarter. Toeaina also scored on an inbounds play off an assist from Karaitiana and hit a pull-up jumper to cap a 12-0 UH run that gave the Wahine a 20-8 lead.

"I was just letting the game come to me. I knew I had the support of my team and we just wanted to come out today and finally play someone," said Toeaina, who also had three assists and two steals.

UH led 39-21 at halftime, opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run and led by as many as 41 in the fourth quarter.

Courtney Hayes and Dana Jones led Grand Canyon with seven points each. The Antelopes lost guard August Touchard, their top returning scorer, to an injury late in the first quarter.

Hawaii 74, Grand Canyon 41

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played. 

Halftime — Hawaii 39, Grand Canyon 21

3-points goals — Hawaii 5-13 (Harris 2-5, Karaitiana 1-1, Toeaina 1-1, Salanoa 1-3, King 0-1, Crawford 0-2). Grand Canyon 2-13 (Bloom 1-3, Gajewski 1-3, Edwards 0-1, Jones 0-1, Touchard 0-1, Hendrington 0-2, Massaquoi 0-2). Steals — Hawaii 7 (King 2, Toeaina 2, Crawford, Harris, Morris). Grand Canyon 5 (Bloom 2, Crawford 2, Hendrington). Blocked shots — Hawaii 4 (Huff, Karaitiana, Kennedy, Morris). Grand Canyon 1 (Massaquoi). Turnovers — Hawaii 12 (King 5, Harris 3, Adolpho, Huff, Toeaina). Grand Canyon 18 (Hayes 5, Daniels 3, Hendrington 3, Bloom 2, Jones 2, Clark, Gajewski, Lee). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Tiffany Jump, Jess Martinez, In’fini Robinson. A—623.