Rainbow Wahine fall just short at Nevada

The Hawaii women’s basketball team opened the season with a one-point loss. It closed nonconference play the same way.

The Rainbow Wahine absorbed a 79-78 overtime defeat at Nevada’s Lawlor Events Center on Saturday to conclude their three-game holiday road trip at 1-2.

UH (4-9), which played in the Duel in the Desert tournament in Las Vegas, then split for a few days for Christmas, reconvened and shot 54.2 percent from the floor. It had chances to win in both the final seconds of regulation and the extra period in Reno, Nev., but went 0-for-3 on those opportunities.

“With the way we turned the ball over again (23 times to nine for Nevada) and the way we fouled, I don’t even know if we deserved to be in that game,” coach Laura Beeman said in a postgame phone interview.

Season scoring leader Kenna Woodfolk went scoreless. She picked up four fouls, including a technical, in her five minutes.

But guard Julissa Tago scored all of her season-high 24 points after halftime, rallying the Wahine out of a 17-point hole and to some brief leads late in the game. Center Lauren Rewers had a career game; the sophomore posted personal bests of 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Tago, who shot 11-for-16, missed an off-balance shot at the end of regulation with the game tied at 69.

“We made a great comeback, the fight was awesome to see. We just dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half,” Beeman said. “We always look to ‘J’ to score for us, and today she really showed up in the second half and was able to get her feet set, get great shots. … (For Rewers) it was absolutely her best game across the board.”

Nevada (4-7) got 24 points from Terae Briggs on 9-for-14 shooting. After UH led three times in OT — the last at 75-73 on a layup by Rewers — Briggs tied it up at 75, then put the Wolf Pack ahead for good on a pair of layups.

“We definitely had some good opportunities to win that ballgame at the end of regulation as well as overtime,” Beeman said. “We just really had a hard time, when we were up in overtime, to get a stop to win the ballgame.”

Lahni Salanoa hit a second-chance 3-pointer to make it a one-point game with just under a minute left. UH got a stop at the other end and called timeout.

Tago was fouled on a drive with about eight seconds left, but the call was deemed to have come on the ground instead of in the act of shooting, so the Wahine had to inbound.

Point guard Tia Kanoa drove into the paint and missed a pull-up shot. Guard Savannah Reier got the rebound on the far side and went back up with it, but she missed then was knocked to the floor at the buzzer.

Beeman said she didn’t see contact on the attempt, but “it sure looked like she got hit pretty hard after that shot,” she added. “But that’s not what the game came down to.”

Reier remained down for several minutes. Beeman said she was still being evaluated about a half-hour after the game.

The Wahine return home for a few days, then head back out for the start of Big West play at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.