The scoreboard might not have reflected it, but Hawaii women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman feels her team made strides against a talented Mississippi State team Sunday.
Chinwe Okorie finished with 18 points and seven rebounds as No. 7 Mississippi State forced 30 turnovers in a 66-41 victory over Hawaii in the final game of the Rainbow Wahine Showdown at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii fell to 2-5 overall and lost all three games in the four-team round-robin tournament.
“Right now it’s not about our overall record,” Beeman said. “It’s about us getting better, which we did tonight. If we can play like we did tonight, not only in the latter half of our preseason but going into conference, we will win more than we lose.”
The Rainbow Wahine, who struggled against the Bulldogs’ aggressive man-to-man defense, set a season low for points in a game and a high for turnovers.
“That’s a team that gets after it big-time,” Beeman said. “They play incredible on-ball and off-ball pressure. We knew we were going to turn the ball over, but 30 is excessive by any standards.”
Mississippi State (7-0) won the event with a 3-0 record with the average margin of victory at 24.7 points per game.
“This is not enough,” Okorie said. “We’re not satisfied. We won a championship, it’s great, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
The Bulldogs did a good job of feeding the 6-foot-5 Okorie in the post, where no Rainbow Wahine could stop her. She finished 8-for-10 from the field to help Mississippi State hold a 34-10 advantage in points in the paint and 39-27 advantage in rebounds.
“She’s come a long way … if you could see her three years ago, she couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time,” Bulldogs coach Vic Schaefer said. “So she’s really made big strides. Kid’s a workaholic.”
Sarah Toeaina and Brianna Harris each scored 11 points to lead the Rainbow Wahine.
Both players were on last year’s team that won the Big West Conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament. This season, wins will be more difficult to come by.
“We love challenges,” Toeaina said. “Bri and I talk about it all the time. I tell the girls I wouldn’t want another group of girls around me than what I have right now.”
The Rainbow Wahine forced 20 turnovers out of a 2-3 zone.
“I thought we made a lot of great plays on the ball when the ball was in the air,” Beeman said. “Today we reacted on the pass and we were there on the catch or we were able to make a play on the ball. We got some hands on some passes, some tips, deflections.”
Victoria Viviens added 10 points and four steals for Mississippi State, which came into the game averaging 83.8 points.
The Bulldogs scored the first 11 points, with Okorie hitting all three of her field-goal attempts in the paint.
The Rainbow Wahine’s first points came on Makenna Woodfolk’s free throws with 4:57 left in the first quarter.
Toeaina’s 3-pointer from the right wing one minute later – Hawaii’s first field goal – sparked a 13-0 run, which gave the Rainbow Wahine a 15-13 lead with 8:42 remaining in the first half.
“The fact that these young ladies came in with the mentality of we’re absolutely going to compete,” Beeman said. “When we got down 11-0 it was kind of scary. We hit a couple free throws and all of a sudden the motor started turning on the defensive end and we realized they couldn’t score at will and the ball started to drop for us a little bit.”
The Bulldogs responded with a 17-0 run to take a 30-15 advantage with 2:03 left before halftime. Roshunda Johnson capped the rally with a pair of 3-pointers from the left side. Mississippi State took a 33-19 lead into the break.
Mississippi State’s lead reached as high as 64-38 with 1:27 remaining in the game.
