Beeman’s new players learning as they go

Experience indeed proved to be a tough teacher on Hawaii’s season-opening road trip.

After dropping both ends of last weekend’s Southern California swing, the Rainbow Wahine basketball team carries those lessons into its first homestand of the season.

“Fixable things and things you would expect of a young team and that’s right where we are,” UH coach Laura Beeman said of the early shortcomings.

UH now turns its attention to its home debut today against Youngstown State (0-2) in the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The tournament opens with Sacramento State taking on New Mexico State at 3 p.m. in the first game of a tripleheader. The UH-Youngstown State game is scheduled for 5:30, with the men’s game between the Rainbow Warriors and No. 5 North Carolina to follow.

After a day off on Saturday, the tournament concludes Sunday with UH taking on New Mexico State (1-1).

UH opened the season a week ago with a 76-44 loss at USC, then dropped a 58-51 decision to CSU Bakersfield on Sunday. Although the Wahine were in position to pull out a win at CSUB, a 10-for-20 showing from the free-throw line and 19 turnovers contributed to the program’s first 0-2 start since going 0-6 to open the 2008-09 season.

“It’s that lack of focus that we’re seeing that causes those missed free throws and those missed blockouts and those turnovers. It’s the focus that needs to get on point,” Beeman said.

As expected, senior Briana Harris and junior Sarah Toeaina lead the Wahine with 11.5 and 11 points per game through two contests. Harris turned in her first career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds against CSUB. Collectively, the Wahine will look to improve on 30.4 percent shooting from the field.

UH was limited to an eight-player rotation last week and the frontcourt figures to get a bit deeper with the addition of freshman forward Keleah-Aiko Koloi. The Lahainaluna graduate suffered a knee injury in the Green and White scrimmage on Oct. 21 and Beeman hopes to ease her into the rotation this weekend.

“Her conditioning is not going to be great, and she’s still learning what it is we’ve been doing the last two weeks,” Beeman said. “She’s probably one of our better post players with her touch and ability to catch the ball and have a good feel for the game around the rim. She’s just a little bit behind in the learning curve.”

Youngstown State returns three starters from a team that went 21-13 last season. Sarah Cash, a 6-1 forward, led the Penguins with 14.1 points per game last season and averaged eight in their first two games this season. But Beeman expects a flurry of 3-pointers from the Penguins, who average 26 attempts per game, going 10-for-52 so far.

New Mexico State went 26-5 last season to win the Western Athletic Conference title and opened with a win over San Jose State before losing to New Mexico 84-55 on Tuesday. NMSU’s visit brings Farrington graduate Jeneva Toilolo, a 6-3 freshman forward, back to the islands.

“It’s going to be tough with our inexperience, it’s going to be tough with our injuries,” Beeman said. “We don’t have a lot of depth right now. We’re very young playing some very veteran teams.”

Sacramento State (1-2) will face NMSU and Youngstown State during its stay. The Hornets are averaging 90.7 points per game while allowing 95.3.