For the first time in 2019-20, the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball team enjoyed a drama-free finish.
They executed in the fourth quarter to put away Texas-San Antonio 62-50 on the first day of the four-team Bank of Hawaii Classic on Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
UH (3-1) won its season opener by making plays in the final seconds against San Diego State, but went minus-11 and minus-eight in the fourth quarters of last week’s road split at Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
The Wahine outscored UTSA 21-14 in the fourth Friday as 289 people looked on.
>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and Texas-San Antonio.
A big part of that was cutting down on offensive rebounds and second-chance points for the opponent. UH was still outscored in second-chance points 18-4 on Friday, but that represented an improvement in the eyes of coach Laura Beeman.
“We had to go up from our road-trip (games),” Beeman said. “We had to make an effort at closing the game out correctly.”
Up next is Texas Southern (1-3) at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The Tigers are coached by women’s hoops legend Cynthia Cooper-Dyke. TSU lost the tournament opener to Utah 61-52.
Junior center Lauren Rewers put in 13 points against the Roadrunners (3-2) on 6-for-8 shooting. Sophomore forward Myrrah Joseph scored 11 of her 13 points after halftime, grabbed eight rebounds and had three assists. Junior wing Amy Atwell supplied 11 points, including three of her team’s four 3-pointers.
Joseph shook off a couple of quick whistles to go 3-for-3 from the field and 5-for-6 at the line after intermission.
“Coach B talked to me at halftime about my fouls, and she’s just like, ‘You got this,’ “ Joseph said. “I just came into the second half as a new half. Don’t worry about what happened in the first half; I can come in and apply what I know to do in the second half.”
Freshman Makayla Edwards ran plenty of point in her 15 minutes with two of the team’s primary ball-handlers, Nae Nae Calhoun and Courtney Middap, in foul trouble.
“Huge, huge minutes with Sav (Savannah Reier) out and injured and Courtney being out with some foul trouble,” Beeman said. “For her to be able to come in, organize our offense, get to the basket like she did in the first half … she stayed really composed and did a good job on the defensive end. Her minutes are going to do nothing but increase, I promise you.”
After giving up the first 10 points of the game, UTSA of Conference USA crept within three points near the end of the third.
Rewers opened the fourth with a bucket to push it back to seven. Calhoun’s open-court steal and drop-off pass to Jadynn Alexander made it 54-42 with four minutes left. Julissa Tago followed with an elbow jumper to grow the lead to its largest, 16.
Forward Adryana Quezada led UTSA with 16 points and eight rebounds.
