Wahine face a young CSUN team

Post play has been a strength for much of the season. The perimeter game is coming off its most productive performance of the season.

Pairing those facets together remains the focus for the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team in its return to the Stan Sheriff Center.

“We have to be able to put pieces together,” UH coach Laura Beeman said.

Coming off a split of last week’s road trip to open the Big West season, the Rainbow Wahine play host to last year’s conference tournament champion and this year’s early front runner in their first homestand of the league schedule.

UH (8-7, 1-1 Big West) faces CSUN (2-13, 0-1), which knocked off the top-seeded Wahine in the Big West tournament final last March, today at 7 p.m. The Wahine then face UC Riverside (9-7, 2-0), the conference’s highest scoring team, on Saturday.

In last week’s Big West opener at Long Beach State, the Wahine controlled the paint in a 67-55 win at the Walter Pyramid. Two days later, UH — which ranked near the bottom of the conference in 3-point shooting — hit a season-high 11 shots from long range, but were outscored inside 32-6 and were outrebounded for only the second time this season in a 60-58 loss at UC Davis.

“When we put pieces together we’ll be a very good team,” Beeman said. “It’s just right now we have guard play that does a great job, we have post play that does a great job, we’ll have certain individuals that do a great job, but we’re just not putting things together.”

UH senior Ashleigh Karaitiana hit a season-high five 3-pointers against UC Davis and freshman point guard Olivia Crawford helped spark the Wahine with 12 points, also a season best, in 24 minutes.

Crawford saw limited minutes early in the season but has started the last three games at the point and Beeman plans to keep the freshman in the first five.

“She’s come a long way,” Beeman said. “We knew she has a very high ceiling, it was just trying to allow her to mature into that without doing it too quickly.

“She doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. She really tries to make adjustments. She’s a great teammate, she’s very vocal in a positive way. She brings great energy on the court.”

UH opens the homestand against a young CSUN team replacing all five starters off last year’s squad that edged UH 67-60 in the Big West final to earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

The Matadors are projected to start three sophomores and two freshmen today and have just one senior and two juniors on the roster. Tessa Boagni, a 6-foot-2 sophomore forward, leads CSUN with 12.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

“They’re young so they’re struggling a little bit ,” Beeman said. “But they’re well coached, they play hard and they’re going to do nothing but get better.”

UC Riverside is loaded with proven scorers and averages a league-high 75.4 points per game. Guard Brittany Crain, last season’s Big West Player of the Year, leads the conference with 19.2 points per game followed by forward Rejane Verin at 17.3. Forward Annelise Ito ranks fifth in the league with 13.5 points per game.

“Right now it’s about CSUN and then Saturday with Riverside it’s a completely different monster,” Beeman said. “They score the the ball very, very well.”