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An all-time shooting performance by senior shooting guard Julissa Tago was not enough to carry the Hawaii women’s basketball team to a win at UC Irvine on Thursday night.
Tago poured in a career-high 34 points — tied for fifth most in a game in program history — and set Rainbow Wahine records for 3-pointers made for a game (eight) and a season (59), but UH could not come up with defensive stops and Tago missed a critical free throw late in a 72-71 loss at UCI’s Bren Events Center.
Tago was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 4.5 seconds with UH trailing by three. She made the first two free throws and missed the third, and the Anteaters grabbed the rebound.
“The last play of the game wasn’t for her,” coach Laura Beeman said in a postgame phone interview. “You know, J does not normally miss free throws; unfortunately she did. It did not come down to that play.”
UH (14-12, 8-5 Big West) remained in sole possession of second place with three games before the Big West tournament. It plays its final regular-season road game at Cal State Fullerton (15-11, 7-6) at 4 p.m. Saturday.
It was an unfortunate outcome for Tago, who scored the most by a Wahine player since Tania Brunton put in 34 against New Mexico State on March 8, 1996. She shot 11-for-19 from the field, 8-for-14 on 3s and 4-for-6 from the line.
“J has the right mind-set. She has next-play mentality. She wants to win,” Beeman said. “That’s something that needs to run throughout your entire team, is that no-quit mentality. And J has that. When people try to stop her, she just puts it into another gear. She’s very confident in her shot, and she should be.”
Freshman forward Sophia Locandro matched Tago with 34 points on 11-for-22 shooting, and grabbed 11 rebounds for Irvine (11-17, 7-7), making the outcome decidedly different than UH’s 94-70 rout of the Anteaters in Honolulu on Jan .30.
“I thought our post defense was pretty bad tonight. We gave (Locandro) too many points and too many second-chance opportunities on rebounding,” Beeman said. “You can’t give up 34 points to one player who probably tripled her average. So, defensively was where our problem was tonight.”
The previous UH 3s record in a game was six, held by multiple players, including Tago and teammates Courtney Middap and Amy Atwell, as well as Megan Tinnin. She broke that midway through the third quarter by sinking seven of her first 10 long-range attempts. Tinnin also held the season 3s record at 55.
UH led by six points at the start of the fourth, but gave up a big run. Tago’s eighth 3 couldn’t stem the tide and the Wahine fell behind by eight.
Tago’s three-point play brought UH within 70-69 with 1:33 remaining. UH got the ball back, but Middap missed a 3, and UCI point guard Lauren Saiki put in a post basket for a three-point lead with 17.8 seconds left.
UH had to take fouls and took two before stealing the ball with 0.3 seconds left and calling timeout. Middap’s inbounds pass to Atwell for a tip-in attempt by the rim was broken up.
Freshman point guard Nae Nae Calhoun dealt 10 assists in the loss, while senior Saiki had a key late basket as well as 12 assists for Irvine.
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