Rainbow Wahine third, fifth in BWC basketball polls

Big West coaches and media varied in their projections for Hawaii in the conference’s preseason women’s basketball polls.

The Rainbow Wahine, the defending Big West tournament champions, landed in third place in the media poll and fifth in the coaches poll released today.

The coaches and media agreed on Long Beach State as the preseason favorite with the 49ers topping both polls. LBSU received five of nine first-place votes from the coaches and nine of 20 from the media.

The media poll followed with UC Riverside, last season’s regular-season champion, Hawaii, UC Davis and Cal State Northridge. The coaches voted UC Davis second followed by UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii.

UH received three first-place votes in the media poll and one in the coaches poll.

The coaches and media preseason all-conference teams were identical. Raven Benton (Long Beach State), Morgan Bertsch (UC Davis), Channon Fluker (CSUN), Hannah Gilbert and Dynn Leaupepe (Cal Poly) and Rejane Verin (UC Riverside) made the preseason lists.

The Rainbow Wahine return five players from last season’s 21-11 team. UH went 12-4 in Big West play to finish second in the regular-season standings and won the conference tournament to earn the program’s first NCAA tournament bid since 1998. UH’s top three scorers, including All-Big West guard Destiny King, and six of the top eight moved on after the season. Senior guard Briana Harris and junior Sarah Toeaina lead the group of returnees.

The Wahine face Hawaii Hilo at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Stan Sheriff Center in their lone exhibition game before opening the season Nov. 11 at USC.