When the elaborate postgame ceremony ended, the sun hadn’t yet set on Hawaii women’s basketball senior night. Nor had it gone down on the Rainbow Wahine’s 2018-19 season.
UH’s four seniors came to play in their sendoff game and got help from everyone else wearing white in a sorely needed 70-55 win over Cal State Fullerton on Saturday afternoon at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A season-high senior day crowd of 725 was on hand to witness UH (12-15, 8-6 Big West) spread the scoring wealth and protect the ball — they dealt 16 assists against a season-low eight turnovers — to assume sole control of fourth place with two games to play before the Big West tournament.
The Wahine were coming off their toughest week of the season: two grind-your-teeth losses and the program departure of top scorer and rebounder Makenna Woodfolk to an announced pregnancy.
“It’s our theme, right? Unfortunately, we need to get our butts kicked a little bit for us to spark up a little bit,” said senior point guard Tia Kanoa, her face shrouded by a mountain of lei.
“Going into the tournament, we just gotta stay consistent. Keep this rolling,” added Kanoa, who dealt six assists. “This was a team win. When everybody contributes like they did tonight, we’re unstoppable.”
All 10 Wahine players who saw action scored.
Coach Laura Beeman started all four seniors. Leah Salanoa buried three 3-pointers and scored 11 points, guard Rachel Odumu — in the first five for the first time since Nov. 25 — chipped in an energetic five points and six rebounds, and Lahni Salanoa hit a 3 and grabbed five boards.
UH plays the rest of its season on the mainland, including its last two of the regular season in challenging matchups next week at second-place UC Riverside and third-place Cal State Northridge.
“Regardless of what happens we’re going to go into the tournament ready to play, and that’s what we showed tonight — we can play great basketball,” Beeman said. “We found our chemistry, which is what we needed to find, and it took us a little time to do that, but we found it tonight. I think that was pretty apparent.”
UH closed out the second quarter with a 9-0 run, capped with Odumu’s offensive rebound and score to beat the buzzer for a 35-23 lead.
“I could feel my teammates from 90 feet away. The vibe that they were bringing. We were in it,” Odumu said. “(That run) was huge. (It) gave us all the more energy to come out … and close it out.”
The Titans narrowed it to six points going into the fourth and drew as close as four with eight minutes left. Courtney Middap pushed back with consecutive 3-pointers to make it 57-47. Leah Salanoa followed with two of her own to extend the lead to 16.
Middap and Amy Atwell combined for 26 points off the bench.
Forward Daeja Smith led Fullerton (13-14, 5-9) with 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting. The Titans are coached by Hawaii Baptist graduate Jeff Harada, the former head coach of the Hawaii Pacific women and assistant coach for the HPU men.
Odumu, of Manassas, Va., got the postgame festivities started with a senior shot assisted by her mother. That was followed by the local product Kanoa, who came out with her family, then performed a hula that her sister introduced to her.
“I have never danced that hula before. I had not danced in a couple years, since like high school,” the 2014 Kamehameha graduate said. “I’ve been practicing on the road. I’ve been practicing for a couple months. Not all the time, but I had to make sure that was a key part of tonight.”
The Salanoa sisters, four-year players from Oxnard, Calif., were members of the 2015-16 Big West title team. They closed it out with a traditional Samoan dance.
“We took just this week to practice that. It’s an old dance, and we kind of remembered a little bit,” Lahni Salanoa said. “It brought back memories and having our family around us while we danced was special.”
