Rainbow Wahine turn to defense for victory

Mikayla Ferenz, the No. 7 scorer in the country going into Wednesday night, hoisted shot after shot, triple after triple.

Hawaii got the Idaho guard to miss enough of them — 16 of her 22 shots were off the mark, including 12 of her opponent-record 16 3-point tries — to allow the Rainbow Wahine to eke out a 69-61 win in front of 373 people at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH (2-7) snapped a three-game losing streak in its first of five December games. Up next is Hawaii Pacific at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

“I think the girls executed defense brilliantly. These guys bought in,” Wahine coach Laura Beeman said. “They knew their personnel, their schemes when we were supposed to go over, under (screens). Who we could come off of, who we couldn’t come off of. Where the help was coming from. So, they did a fantastic job.”

Junior forward Kenna Woodfolk had a game-high 21 points, while point guard Tia Kanoa came up huge in the fourth quarter with 10 of her 12 points, connecting on all four shots in the period.

“It felt good. Practices have been intense,” said Woodfolk, who stuck a couple of Nowitzki-esque one-legged fallaway jumpers among her 5-for-10 shooting. “Like Tia said in the locker room, we have to get addicted to this feeling, the feeling of winning. Just coming in focused was how we got it done.”

Kanoa had four assists and three steals without a turnover.

“We have a goal of 5-0 in December. And we’re gonna get that goal,” Kanoa said. “It definitely feels great to get this first one, but we have to keep that momentum and be consistent.”

Until the 5-foot-11 senior Ferenz connected on a few deep 3s to stretch out the last few minutes, she was well below her average of 23.8 points per game, shooting 2-for-15 at one point.

She was coming off a 40-point performance against San Francisco and had three straight games of 30-plus points.

She finished with 18 points on her 22 shots.

Former WAC foe Idaho (3-4), coached by former Wahine assistant Jon Newlee, came back from 13 points down to take a five-point lead in the third quarter behind four 3s in the period from Taylor Pierce. That snapped an 0-for-15 outing from beyond the arc for Newlee’s crew.

Hawaii was boosted by the return of wing Lahni Salanoa from injury. She scored seven points on 3-for-4 shooting in her senior-season debut, including a buzzer-beating 3 to end the third. Woodfolk and Kanoa scored baskets to begin the fourth and the Wahine led by as many as 10 points from there.