Aggies rally to edge Wahine

After edging UC Davis twice last year, the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team ended up on the other end of another tight duel with the Aggies on Saturday.

The Rainbow Wahine hit a season-high 11 3-pointers through the first three quarters of the Big West matchup, but the host Aggies erased an 11-point second-half deficit in a 60-58 win at The Pavilion in Davis, Calif.

UC Davis forward Morgan Bertsch led the Aggies (9-6, 2-0 Big West) with 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and center Alyson Doherty added 16 points and eight rebounds. They accounted for 12 of the Aggies’ 19 points in the fourth quarter and Doherty’s basket with 2:14 left was the last of nine lead changes in UH’s first road loss of the season.

“When it came to winning time, those post players stepped up,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview.

UH senior Ashleigh Karaitiana drained five 3-pointers, one short of her career best, to lead UH with 15 points, and freshman guard Olivia Crawford went 3-for-4 from long range to finish with a season-high 12 points. Guard Briana Harris also hit three 3-pointers.

The loss snapped UH’s streak of 15 consecutive Big West regular-season wins dating back to last season. The Wahine (8-7, 1-1 Big West) return home to face Cal State Northridge on Thursday and UC Riverside on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UC Davis led 60-57 after Bertsch made one of two free throws with 17 seconds left. After a timeout, the Wahine worked the clock down and Crawford was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 1.3 seconds left. Crawford made the first of three free throws, but the second rolled off the rim. After a UC Davis timeout, Crawford intentionally missed the third attempt and time expired in the scramble for the rebound.

“(UH forward Megan) Huff gave it a great attempt and actually got a hand on the ball and a decent punch trying to get the ball back up to the rim, but just couldn’t get enough on it,” Beeman said.

“Unfortunate (Crawford) missed the free throws, but that’s definitely not why we lost that game, that is for sure. To have put herself in that position is pretty outstanding for a freshman (and) to play as well as she did.”

UC Davis entered the game as one of the Big West’s top 3-point-shooting teams, while UH had done most of its work in the post. The roles reversed on Saturday when the Wahine came out hot from the perimeter while the Aggies outscored UH 32-6 in the paint and outrebounded the Wahine 35-28 while going 2-for-7 behind the arc.

“The shooting was what finally took them out of their zone; unfortunately when they got out of their zone we did not execute our man offense very well, which is not like us,” Beeman said.

“We just have to put pieces together. I thought overall we played well, but we have to put the pieces together of good post play and good guard play and we didn’t do that.”

Led by Bertsch, a 6-foot-4 freshman, and Doherty, a 6-3 senior, UC Davis shot 48 percent overall and 60 percent (12-for-20) in the second half. The Aggies also went 10-for-14 from the free-throw line, with UH whistled for 19 fouls to nine for UCD.

BIG WEST

Thursday

Hawaii 67, Long Beach State 55

UC Davis 75, CSUN 52

UC Santa Barbara 78, Cal Poly 67

UC Riverside 93, UC Irvine 69

Saturday

UC Davis 60, Hawaii 58

Cal Poly 72, UC Irvine 54

UC Riverside 83, UC Santa Barbara 53

Long Beach State 82, Cal State Fullerton 61

Wednesday

UC Riverside at Long Beach State

Thursday

CSUN at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

UC Irvine at UC Davis

UC Santa Barbara at CS Fullerton

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 27, UC Davis 27

3-points goals — Hawaii 11-22 (Karaitiana 5-10, Crawford 3-4, Harris 3-5, King 0-1, Wimbley 0-2). UC Davis 2-7 (Marfone 2-3, Gianotti 0-1, Nafekh 0-1, Johnson 0-2). Steals — Hawaii 4 (King 2, Karaitiana, Wimbley). UC Davis 6 (Nafekh 2, Bertsch, Ka. Eaton, Ko. Eaton, Johnson). Blocked shots — Hawaii 2 (Huff, Morris). UC Davis 3 (Doherty 2, Bertsch). Turnovers — Hawaii 11 (Karaitiana 3, Adolpho 2, Crawford 2, Harris, Huff, King, Toeaina). UC Davis 12 (Doherty 4, Gianotti 3, Bertsch 2, Johnson, Marfone, Nafekh). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Paul Patterson, Peter Contreras, Kim Mains. A—508.