UC Irvine pressures Wahine into another loss

In the same sense that telling someone “no pressure” can inspire panic, the Hawaii women’s basketball team could not settle down for much of Thursday night’s battle against energetic UC Irvine.

Struggles to focus against ball pressure and at the foul line were detrimental to the Rainbow Wahine, who lost 74-67, dropping them to 0-3 for the first time as a Big West member.

“Their pressure,” UH’s Lahni Salanoa said of the game’s key factor. “I’m not going to say we’re not used to being pressured, but being pressured the whole game was kind of hard. The first half, it was just our turnovers and they were capitalizing off them.”

The Wahine sank a season-high 11 3-pointers, led by Salanoa’s four, but converted just 10 of 23 free throws (43.5 percent) and committed 22 turnovers against UCI’s flexible press.

Only eight of those came in the second half, when UH calmed down and attacked it with purpose, aided by the return of point guard Tia Kanoa from early foul trouble. UH surged to take the lead, but UCI reclaimed it with timely shots in the final minutes.

“We struggled with either over-dribbling or not being able to get ourselves into an offense that put us in positions to shoot the ball like we normally do,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “Second half obviously we handled the press much better, but we struggled defensively. We couldn’t get stops when we needed stops.”

UH (7-9 overall) had an eight-game winning streak against UCI (9-7, 1-1) snapped. The Anteaters won in Honolulu for just the second time in 18 attempts as a smattering of 546 looked on at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Salanoa led UH with 15 points and Sarah Toeaina and Kenna Woodfolk added 12 apiece, but Irvine guard Morgan Green scored 31 points on 9-for-15 shooting. Deijah Blanks added 20 off the bench for the visitors, including the go-ahead three-point play with 3:48 left, followed by a 3.

Green, a transfer from Michigan State in just her second game with the Anteaters, shot 5-for-9 on 3s and also had five of her team’s 12 steals.

“She’s a heck of a player,” Beeman said. “You can see why she was recruited to that level. We kind of figured she would try to take the game over and she really did.”

The Wahine made life difficult for themselves at the line, where they had plenty of opportunities but seldom connected.

“It’s just focusing. It’s honestly just focus, taking our time, staying in our shot,” said Woodfolk, who was 3-for-8 there.

The only other time the Anteaters won at Hawaii was Jan. 15, 1995. That was not lost on UCI second-year coach Tamara Inoue.

“It’s awesome. Hawaii is so hard to play here, and we knew that coming in,” Inoue said. “We had to be ready to go. I thought our kids stuck with it. They started catching us again, and we didn’t let it fall back. We finished the game. Really proud of their efforts.”

UH turned it over 14 times in the first half thanks mostly to UCI’s pressure, negating 56.5 percent shooting from the field as the Anteaters led 41-38 at the break.

UH continues play at 5:30 p.m. Saturday against Long Beach State (2-15, 0-3).