Wahine satisfy hunger for a win

There was a hunger.

Losing three straight does that to a team.

And losing ugly just made the pangs even worse.

Nine days ago, Hawaii knew it didn’t show up for its Big West women’s basketball game at UC Riverside. The Rainbow Wahine lost to the Highlanders 79-57, outrebounded by 15 and outhustled for nearly 40 minutes at SRC Arena to begin what would be a three-game skid.

Saturday night in the rematch with UCR, Hawaii didn’t play great but did just enough — not just to end the slide but satiate some of that hunger that had been hanging around through a four-point loss at UC Irvine a week earlier and a 12-point defeat on Thursday to Cal State Northridge, one that came courtesy of a fourth-quarter meltdown.

Behind senior guard Sarah Toeaina’s 18 points and a pesky defense that pressured the Highlanders into nine second-half turnovers, the Wahine (9-12, 2-6 Big West) hung on for a 63-57 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center. It was Toeaina’s sixth consecutive game in double figures and it moved her past Tondi Redden (1985-90) into 19th place on UH’s all-time scoring list with 1,027.

“My dad always said to take the meat and leave the bone,” Toeaina said. “The meat that we take away from tonight is that we can trust our defensive specialists to turn defense into offense. When we have that spark, we can be successful.

“We knew that if we could play well in the second half like we did in the first quarter tonight we could win.”

Hawaii also took advantage of the absence of UCR senior guard Michelle Curry missing a second consecutive game due to concussion protocol. Curry, fourth in the conference in scoring (15.1 ppg), had 15 points with nine rebounds, five assists and three steals against the Wahine on Jan. 18.

With Curry out, the Highlanders (6-16, 3-5) relied on 22 points from senior guard Lauren Holt and 10 off the bench by junior forward Malou Thiebaut de Kergret. But it was not enough to overcome the 14 turnovers — five critical ones coming in the fourth quarter.

UCR had defeated Hawaii five times in a row and “it was fresh in our minds how they played us the last time,” Toeaina said.

“We know we need to stick to the game plan, be disciplined,” added junior point guard Tia Kanoa, who finished with seven assists with two turnovers in 37 minutes. “I think we use this win and it will snowball.

“It comes down to what we do. Last time against them, we didn’t play a full game.”

Hawaii finished 22-for-33 from the line to UCR’s 11-for-15. The Highlanders had a 15-rebound advantage nine days ago; Saturday, the teams were even at 35.

Asked what she said to the team at intermission, when UH trailed 31-29, Wahine coach Laura Beeman said, “Not much. We knew there wasn’t a lot of adjustments to make. We needed to start taking care of the ball.”

Hawaii heads out on the road for games at Cal Poly (11-8, 5-2) on Thursday and at UC Santa Barbara (7-12, 4-3) on Saturday.