UC Davis doused Julissa Tago just in time.
Tago caught fire in the fourth quarter, rallying the Hawaii women’s basketball team from down 24 points to within five with 4:19 left at the Aggies’ Pavilion. But the senior shooting guard could not connect again, finishing with a season-high 25 points as the Rainbow Wahine took a second road loss to begin Big West play and fourth straight overall, 62-49 on Saturday afternoon.
In a rematch of last year’s Big West championship game won by the Aggies, the Wahine (6-9, 0-2 BWC) started off well, leading by six points after a quarter, but got rocked in the middle two periods, trailing 49-28 going into the fourth quarter.
“We had a four-point quarter,” coach Laura Beeman said of the 20-4 differential in the second during a postgame phone interview. “You don’t have a four-point quarter (and win). We just have to learn that we have to execute, and follow the game plan a little bit.”
Tago finally broke the seal on the basket, hitting three 3-pointers in the span of two minutes and pouring in 15 in the final period. Her fourth 3 of the quarter made it a 22-3 run and brought UH within 52-47.
“We started shooting the ball. We would not shoot the ball prior to that. Finally J decided to shoot the ball and that opened it up,” Beeman said.
But Davis (6-9, 1-1), which has turned to a well-rounded cast of shooters since the graduation of Big West Player of the Year Morgan Bertsch, tightened up its coverage on Tago — she missed her last three shots from long range — and closed the game on a 10-2 run to win its 23rd straight conference home game. UH lost its fifth straight at the Pavilion, having last won there in 2015.
Guard Katie Toole led Davis with 21 points, while guard Makaila Sanders went 5-for-7 on 3s for 15 points. Davis was 11-for-27 on 3s.
“We had a really big defensive breakdown that led to a 3, and had a turnover right after the missed close-out,” Beeman said. “It was about a five- to seven-point swing, and that kind of sealed the deal down the stretch. When you bring a game back like that, and now you have a little bit of confidence, you gotta dial in.”
Tago tied the Wahine single-game record for 3s made by going 6-for-13 from deep. Forward Myrrah Joseph added 12 points and nine rebounds for UH, which was without its other top scorer, Amy Atwell, due to an injury suffered in a 58-54 loss at Cal State Northridge on Thursday. Her status for home games against UC Riverside on Thursday and Cal State Fullerton on Saturday is “day to day,” said Beeman.
