Creating scoring opportunities topped Kelsie Imai’s priorities when she emerged from the locker room at halftime last Saturday.
Fulfilling that objective would require the Hawaii point guard to give herself a chance to stay on the court on the defensive end.
With the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s backcourt rotation already paper thin entering its Big West opener against Cal State Fullerton, Imai went to the bench after picking up two fouls in the first 23 seconds of the second quarter.
That was the last time she left the floor in the game.
Back in the lineup coming out of halftime, Imai’s playmaking ability and defensive discipline helped spark UH’s comeback from a 10-point deficit as the Rainbow Wahine pulled out a 54-52 win to open Big West play with a win for the first time since 2016.
“My mind-set was I just couldn’t foul and had to do whatever was best for my team to get them open shots,” Imai said.
After Cal State Fullerton opened up a 35-25 lead midway through the third quarter, the Waiakea graduate ignited a 16-4 run with three assists — the first leading to an Amy Atwell 3-pointer and the next two setting up Kallin Spiller for layups.
She maintained her defensive tenacity while being “just more cautious about my hands” and scored twice on drives in the fourth quarter to help position the Wahine for a dramatic win capped by Atwell’s layup off an assist from Spiller with 5.3 seconds left.
“Kelsie is a pitbull, and I mean that with all due respect,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “That young lady just has fight. … We knew that we were going to need a lot of her and she stepped up.
“What Kelsie brings to a program that is hard to put a value on is you know she’s going to show up every night and give you that unbelievable effort.”
Coming out of an extended COVID-19 break, Imai knew she would see more time than the 16 minutes she’d averaged while sharing time at the point with Nae Nae Calhoun through the season’s first nine games.
Calhoun was among four UH guards not available for the game as the Wahine were limited to an eight-player rotation with Imai and Ashley Thoms making their first starts of the season.
“Coach (Khalilah Mitchell) told us we didn’t really have an option but to play minutes,” said Imai, who played 29 minutes on Saturday. “So the whole week we spent a lot of time preparing and doing extra conditioning to make sure we had the stamina to perform.”
It was just about a yer ago that Imai took over starting point guard duties two games into her college career after Calhoun suffered a season-ending knee injury. She ended up leading the team with 68 assists while averaging 5.8 points per game.
So carrying a heavy workload isn’t new for Imai as the Wahine (5-6, 1-0) open their first conference road trip of the season today against UC San Diego (5-7, 2-1) at RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, Calif.
The trip continues Saturday with UH playing at UC Irvine (8-6, 3-0). The first-place Anteaters opened the week with a 59-44 win at UC San Diego on Tuesday.
Beeman said the Wahine could have a couple of players back today for the first meeting between UH and UCSD, “but you never know. It’s always day to day.”
“We show up every day for practice, we throw on the court whoever has been released and we’re allowed to play and that’s the same thing were going to do (today) and Saturday,” Beeman said.
Along with a possibly deeper rotation, Beeman said the Wahine are also taking added confidence with them to Southern California following last Saturday’s win.
“I think now they know when times get tough, and it’s going to get very hard on the road, that they have the ability to continue to play through some adversity,” Beeman said.
Big West women’s basketball
At RIMAC Arena; La Jolla, Calif.
Hawaii (5-6, 1-0 BWC) vs. UC San Diego (5-7, 2-1)
>> When: Today, 5 p.m.
>> TV/Radio: None
>> Online: ESPN+
