Hawaii would not allow itself to be thrown off its game by Long Beach State’s ball pressure for the second time in 10 days.
The Rainbow Wahine dominated another facet of the game — the glass — in dispatching the Beach 68-44 on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
UH (11-10, 5-3 Big West) improved to 4-0 at home in conference play with its second convincing win of the week. The Wahine likewise beat UC Irvine by 24 on Thursday. Those are their largest wins of the season over Division I competition.
LBSU (10-11, 5-3) saw its four-game winning streak snapped after requiring double overtime to beat UC Riverside at home on Thursday.
>> PHOTOS: Women’s basketball: Hawaii vs. Long Beach State
The Wahine did it by overwhelming the tired Beach in rebounding, 44-17, including 14-1 in offensive boards, resulting in a 14-0 advantage in second-chance points.
“When you play a zone like they do, it gets people out of rotation. And it’s hard to find a body,” coach Laura Beeman said. “That was something Alex (assistant coach Delanian) talked about before the game. … You’re going to have opportunities to go get the ball, and these guys heard that message loud and clear.”
UH complemented that effort with a 12-for-26 showing from behind the arc, the sixth time this season (and third straight home game) UH hit double-digit 3-pointers.
Shooting guard Julissa Tago continued her recent scoring tear with 19 points, forward Amy Atwell had an efficient 16 points and 11 rebounds, wing Jadynn Alexander supplied 11 and point guard Nae Nae Calhoun had five assists and one turnover.
The Wahine were stuck in quicksand against the Beach in a 62-55 road loss on Jan. 23.
“We owed them one from last week,” Atwell said. “It feels good to get them back at home.”
While the Wahine were similarly affected by LBSU’s active zone pressure in the first few minutes Saturday, they shrugged off each mistake (19 turnovers) and won going away to beat the Beach at home for the ninth straight time dating back to 1996.
“Coach always tells us ‘next play mentality,’ ” Tago said. “A lot of those were just silly ones, dribbling it off our foot or just giving it to them. They weren’t really stopping us; it was on us. … Getting the next play, getting the stop on defense, those are the things we need to grow on and I think we’ve gotten a lot better.”
Defensively, UH made LBSU guards Shanaijah Davison (14 points) and Justina King (12) work for their scoring; they shot a combined 10-for-32.
It was 30-18 UH at halftime with the teams combining for 28 turnovers and UH winning the boards 20-6.
UH opened the third with three straight 3-pointers to open up a 39-21 lead. It was a 17-point margin going to the fourth.
LBSU had an apparent shot-clock-beating running 3 disallowed after an officials review early in the fourth, to the frustration of coach Jeff Cammon.
Atwell’s circus putback of a partially blocked Tago shot beat the shot clock and made it 59-38 with five minutes left.
Atwell left the game with 1:10 remaining after she went down clutching a knee in pain. The forward, who’s had some injury history, managed to get up and walk off with the help of trainers after a minute.
“I’ll be fine. Give me a few days,” Atwell said.
UH next plays at Cal Poly (5-13, 2-5) on Thursday.
