The 3-point shots weren’t falling like they have been, but the Hawaii women’s basketball team kept alive its longest winning streak since 2015-16 anyway.
UH won its fifth straight, 63-51 at UC Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome on Saturday afternoon.
Guard Julissa Tago scored 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting, her sixth 20-point game of the season, and center Lauren Rewers came off the bench to match her season best of 16 points.
Combined with a 59-46 win at Cal Poly on Thursday, UH swept the difficult Central California coast road trip for the second straight year.
“This is a tough road trip,” coach Laura Beeman said in a postgame phone interview. “And I am really proud of the young ladies — they took responsibility for what they needed to do to win games. Today we found a completely different way to get it done.”
The Rainbow Wahine were 6-for-21 (28.6%) on 3s, their recent weapon of choice. Tago, No. 4 on the UH career 3s list, didn’t attempt a single long ball. Amy Atwell, who scored 24 off the bench Thursday, attempted only one shot but grabbed nine rebounds.
Yet UH (13-10, 7-3 Big West) pulled within a half-game of first place in the conference with six regular-season games remaining. Defending champion UC Davis (7-2), which visits the Stan Sheriff Center on Feb. 22, was upset by UC Irvine 73-68 on Saturday.
The Gauchos (9-13, 4-5) did damage early. UCSB freshman center Ila Lane, the second-leading rebounder in the country at 12.9 per game, had 10 points and 12 rebounds by halftime and finished with 20 points and 15 boards.
After UCSB put up 20 points in the first quarter, the game turned in the second, as UH held the Gauchos to three points in the period. It was 26-23 at halftime.
“We did not do a good job of taking away the 3 like we needed to, or taking away the deep seal in the first quarter. … In the second quarter, we decided enough’s enough,” Beeman said.
Courtney Middap hit a running, left-handed hook shot to beat the third-quarter buzzer for a 42-35 lead.
A spurt by Tago pushed the lead back to 10 early in the fourth. The Gauchos cut it to five, but Tago kept up the onslaught by diving to the rim repeatedly. She had 11 points in the final period.
Rewers was the sniper this time. The 6-foot-4 center hit back-to-back 3s for a 53-44 lead with under five minutes left. She kept popping from outside (6-for-16, 3-for-10 on 3s) to draw Lane away from the basket.
“That’s on me. We gave her too much room,” UCSB coach Bonnie Henrickson said on the Gauchos’ postgame radio feed.
Gauchos guard Coco Miller scored 19, but her backcourt mate Danae Miller was held to six points on 3-for-15 shooting.
The Wahine next face Cal State Northridge (10-11, 5-3) on Thursday in the first of two straight single-game weeks at home.
