Wahine fall to Quakers

A late surge was nearly enough to overcome a dismal start for the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team.

But the Rainbow Wahine couldn’t get past one of the stingiest defenses in the country and closed nonconference play with a 64-54 loss to Pennsylvania in the second game of Saturday’s UH basketball doubleheader at the Stan Sheriff Center.

After the Rainbow Warriors completed a dominant win over Howard, the Wahine committed 10 turnovers in the game’s first 10 minutes and trailed by 18 late in the second quarter. The Quakers maintained a 14-point cushion with less than seven minutes left before UH chopped into the deficit and closed to within three when Destiny King drove in for a layup with two minutes left.

But UH (7-6) missed its next nine shots from the field and the Quakers (9-2) extended the lead from the free-throw line to complete a sweep of their two-game stay on Oahu.

“We did not show up to play basketball the first half and you don’t beat a very disciplined, very intelligent, confident team that has all the pieces showing up and playing maybe 11⁄2, 2 quarters,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “So we dug ourselves a big hole and we could not get out of it.”

Penn forward Michelle Nwokedi scored 17 of her game-high 20 points in the second half and finished with 15 rebounds and guards Anna Ross and Beth Brzozowski contributed 15 points each for the Quakers, who also defeated BYU-Hawaii on Thursday.

UH center Connie Morris led the Wahine with 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting and had eight rebounds and six blocks.

“If there was a bright spot it was Connie’s play tonight,” Beeman said. “She played against two very good post players.”

King finished with 10 points and Briana Harris added eight points and eight rebounds and helped spark the fourth-quarter comeback.

“I think what we did in the fourth quarter should have been what we did the whole game from beginning to end and that didn’t happen,” King said.

Coming off three road wins, the Wahine appeared out of sorts early in their first regular-season home game since Nov. 29. They’ll head back to California this week and open Big West play at Long Beach State on Thursday.

Penn entered the game seventh in the country in scoring defense, allowing 49.9 points per game, and the Wahine struggled to get looks at the basket due to 10 first-quarter turnovers.

When they did get into their offense, they made seven of 24 shots from the field in the first half and trailed 33-18 at halftime. Morris provided the bulk of UH’s offense with eight points.

UH trailed 19-15 when Harris drove in for a layup with 6:23 left in the second quarter. But Penn broke away with a 14-0 run until UH guard Marissa Wimbley hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.

UH committed just six turnovers after the first quarter but couldn’t make up much ground until a 13-2 run that cut Penn’s lead to 56-53, capped by King’s drive with two minutes left.

The Wahine defense provided opportunities to close further, but the shots stopped falling and Penn managed to pull away.

“I thought we had good control the first eight or nine minutes and an opportunity to separate, but we didn’t,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said.

“Then we started making some shots, and then the foul shooting helped. Something we’ve been working on a lot.”