Five minutes away.
The Hawaii women’s basketball team held a lead over UC Davis with five minutes left in the 2019 Big West tournament championship game at Anaheim’s Honda Center last March, a coveted NCAA tournament berth awaiting if they could just hold on a little longer, as they had all game to that point.
UH had already gotten past more established teams like Cal State Northridge and UC Riverside on the road to earn the No. 2 seed and give itself a realistic shot. A shot they missed by a hair.
The 16-0 fourth-quarter run that the top-seeded Aggies used to go from nine down to seven up — resulting in a 58-50 defeat — lingered for the Rainbow Wahine all offseason, and throughout their 6-7 nonconference season this winter.
Recalibration in a fresh Big West season begins today at CSUN. Laura Beeman’s eighth UH team was picked to finish fourth in both the preseason media and coaches polls.
“It’s definitely in the back of my mind,” said junior forward Amy Atwell, UH’s leading scorer (11.3 points per game) and rebounder (5.3). “I can’t focus on it too much, because it’s a new season, new teams, there’s a lot of new players in the conference and it’s just a new conference this year. But of course that’s going to be in the back of my mind, motivation of course, heartbreaking as it was to go that far and then lose.”
Said junior center Lauren Rewers, “We knew we should’ve had that game, and it sucks to think that we didn’t, but our mind-set going into conference is that’s our goal. And we want it.”
The 16-game conference regular-season schedule appears to be largely up for grabs. Cal State Fullerton, coached by Hawaii native Jeff Harada, was the only Big West team to post a winning record in nonconference play at 8-5. The Titans boast the seventh-leading scorer in the country, guard Raina Perez (22.5 points per game, up from 13.0 last year).
But gone are dominant post players Channon Fluker of CSUN and Morgan Bertsch of Davis, four- and three-time Big West first-teamers, respectively.
“It’s a big opportunity,” said the 6-foot-4 Rewers, who came into this season leaner and has averaged 6.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. “I just have to keep working on my game and learning from each game. Just to keep expanding and growing this season.”
UH showed its potential with two of the Big West’s four wins over Power Five teams, a home defeat of Texas of the Big 12 and a road win over Washington of the Pac-12. UC Santa Barbara (5-8) beat USC, and Long Beach State (5-8) topped Penn State.
The Wahine replaced second-team point guard Tia Kanoa with freshman Nae Nae Calhoun (5.2 ppg, 3.3 assists per game, 1.5 steals per game).
Like its primary ball-handler, the team itself will lean on limiting opponents; UH leads the league in scoring defense (60.2 points allowed); field-goal percentage defense (.368); and 3-point percentage defense (.261).
Atwell and Julissa Tago (11.2 ppg) rank 15th and 16th in the league in scoring, but they’re two of the top seven 3-point shooters.
“I think right now we have to worry about University of Hawaii, and if we do that, come with the right mentality, we can beat anybody on any given day,” Beeman said. “If we don’t show up, we’ll get beat by anybody on any given day.”
No returnees have been to the Big Dance, with UH’s last appearance coming in 2016.
BIG WEST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Today: Hawaii (6-7, 0-0 BWC) at Cal State Northridge (5-9, 0-0), 5 p.m.
Saturday: Hawaii at UC Davis (5-8), noon
TV/Radio: None.
Live streaming: BigWest.TV
