Rainbow Wahine escape with win at UNLV

Squandering an 18-point lead never felt so good.

The Hawaii women’s basketball team coughed up that huge advantage at UNLV and trailed in the final seconds in regulation, yet survived and advanced to the championship game of the Duel in the Desert tournament in Las Vegas with a 66-61 overtime victory at Cox Pavilion on Wednesday.

“It was actually really good for us to be up, be down, tie the game in regulation and then go into OT and win it,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a postgame phone interview. “Those are really, really good moments for this team.

“When you’re up, it gives you confidence. And even when you lose it, you still have the confidence to know you (can) go back to what worked, even if they make adjustments. We had to make adjustments also, and we had to go back to what worked for us. And I think in overtime we did that better than we did in the third and fourth quarter.”

UH (4-7) won its third straight game despite getting outscored 17-6 in the fourth quarter and committing 20 turnovers for the game, including 12 steals by the quicker, pressure-minded Rebels (1-9), who looked poised to steal the outcome, too.

But coming out of a timeout in the waning seconds of regulation, point guard Tia Kanoa found an open lane going around a screen and tied it up at 55 on a layup with under six seconds left. Jadynn Alexander, who had all five of her points in overtime, had the go-ahead 3 on UH’s first possession of the extra frame. Forward Kenna Woodfolk (19 points, nine rebounds) had two big late boards and hit four straight free throws to seal the outcome.

On Friday at 12:30 p.m., UH will face the winner of today’s game between Utah (9-0) or Florida (3-7) for the Duel in the Desert title. Former Wahine two-sport athlete Megan Huff, a fifth-year senior, is Utah’s best player; Huff also played volleyball for Hawaii.

“If this had been a back-and-forth, back-and-forth game from the beginning, I don’t know that we would’ve pulled the game out,” Beeman said, referring to her team’s early-season difficulties closing out one-possession games. “All of our moments led up to getting a good win. And we need that. We’re 3-0 in December. We have a huge game on Friday. And then we go to Reno (to play Nevada on Dec. 29). Our goal is to go 5-0. It’s going to be a tall (order) on Friday, but I believe in these kids and I believe in what we’re doing.”

Nikki Wheatley had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Rebels, who lost their sixth straight. UH improved to 4-16 all-time at UNLV, its old Big West and WAC foil.