Not once, but twice.

That’s how many times San Jose State’s women’s basketball team nearly lost one of its best players over the past three years.

Losing games hasn’t been easy for senior guard Fieme’a Hafoka, who has played more minutes for the Spartans than any other player since she arrived on campus in 2016.

In high school, Hafoka’s Lahainaluna team won every game it played in the Maui Interscholastic League. She advanced to the state semifinals three times and appeared in the championship game twice.

So it was quite the shock to go to college and suffer through three straight losing seasons.

If she thought an 11-21 record as a freshman was rough, the team went on to win just seven games in her sophomore season and posted a 6-24 mark last year.

Sixty-eight losses in three seasons was enough to make her question where she was.

“It was tough physically, mentally and emotionally,” the 2016 Lunas alumna said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Twice, I wanted to just give up and go home, but my parents told me to push through it.

“I thought about the bigger picture, where here I am on scholarship and I’m getting an education for free, and I think that’s what got me through it.”

Her perseverance has given her the opportunity to be a part of a winning team. With a couple of key newcomers, the Spartans are 12-6 overall and have jumped out to a 6-1 start in Mountain West Conference play, trailing only undefeated Fresno State.

The Bulldogs handed the Spartans their only conference loss in an overtime game earlier this month.

“It’s really fun,” Hafoka said as she perked up talking about her team this year. “We kind of knew (this season) was going to be different. We knew two really good players were going to come in and a lot of us now have had more time to play with each other. We’ve developed some chemistry together and everything is going good.”

Hafoka, who made the game-winning jumper in the final seconds of an overtime win at Nevada following the loss to Fresno, is averaging career highs in points, steals and assists.

She is the only player from the Mountain West listed on Hoopfeed’s WNBA draft board of the top 63 prospects.

“I think just each player has more of a specific role (on the team) than in the past two years,” Hafoka said of her recent success. “Everybody knows they have to do bigger things than they were capable of doing in the past.”

At an early age, Hafoka knew she wanted to play Division I basketball one day. She grew up in Kihei but made the drive out to Lahaina every weekday morning for school to play for the Lunas and coach Todd Rickard.

Lahainaluna saw its MIL win streak snapped this season at 164, which lasted more than a decade, but as Hafoka has learned in college, the losses can make you stronger.

“The bigger picture,” Hafoka said again. “You know you’re going to lose eventually. You know you’re just not going to win every game. You have to look at the bigger picture.”

That wasn’t how she thought as a freshman, but it’s one of many qualities she has taken on over her nearly four years of college.

The whole process is what she’ll remember the most about her time in San Jose.

“Coming in, obviously I didn’t know what to expect,” Hafoka said. “Each year offered something totally different. There were multiple times where I wanted to give up. But like I said, just think of the bigger picture when you get to that point. You realize that everyone is going through the same things, and if they can do it, you can do it.”