Hawaii coach Laura Beeman wanted to see greater defensive intensity from the Rainbow Wahine defense entering a Big West homestand.
The Wahine responded with a stifling performance over the final 15 minutes of Thursday’s game against UC Davis in a 57-50 comeback win at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Down 40-27 midway through the third quarter, the Rainbow Wahine held the Aggies without a field goal until the final five seconds of the game and outscored UC Davis 30-7 over that span to give Beeman her 150th victory at UH.
“I have to give credit to these young ladies — they locked in,” Beeman said. “The first half we didn’t remember our scout well. The second half we were engaged. We picked up the pace. … We were matching or exceeding their tempo.”
With the win, UH (9-8, 5-2 Big West) kept pace with league leaders Long Beach State and UC Irvine, which improved to 7-2 on Thursday, and earned their third win over defending Big West champion UC Davis (9-9, 3-5) in the last 13 meetings.
“I told the kids this win is one of the highlights just because of the way we did it,” Beeman said.
UH guard Olivia Davies helped spark the comeback and finished with a career-high 17 points. UH forward Amy Atwell, the conference’s leading scorer, was held to three points through three quarters but hit two 3-pointers in the fourth and finished with 14 points while moving within two 3-pointers of the UH career record with 165.
The Wahine close out their homestand against UC Riverside at 6 p.m. Saturday.
UH trailed 10-1 less than four minutes into the game, rallied to briefly take a lead early in the second quarter but went into halftime chasing the Aggies 31-24.
UC Davis stretched the lead to 13 with 4:46 left in the third quarter when Evanne Turner got a corner 3-pointer to bounce high off the rim and rattle through.
The UC Davis offense dried up from there and UH took control of the boards in the second half despite trailing 47-35 in the final tally. UH center Kallin Spiller had 10 of her team-high 12 rebounds in the second half and blocked four shots.
“It was definitely rebounding,” Davies said of the third-quarter turnaround. “That helps a lot with even our offense just getting some defensive boards and being able to run and not feeling like we have to play defense for minutes at a time instead of a quick 30 seconds.”
Beeman also credited UH’s nine turnovers compared to UC Davis’ 16 to aiding the defensive effort, because “we weren’t chasing jerseys all night.”
Turner was the lone UC Davis player in double digits with 16 points, and she accounted for the Aggies’ last two field goals, the 3-pointer midway through the third quarter and another with 5.5 seconds left in the game. UC Davis was 0-for-12 in the fourth quarter before Turner’s final shot and the drought left the Aggies at 28.3% (15-for-53) for the game.
The Wahine held reigning Big West Player of the Year Cierra Hall to seven points on 2-for-10 shooting from the field.
After Turner’s third-quarter 3-pointer, UH chopped into the lead when Meilani McBee drained a corner 3-pointer and Davies banked in another at the buzzer.
Atwell hit her first 3-pointer of the game at the 8:45 mark of the fourth quarter and tied the game at 41-41 with a free throw.
After UC Davis reclaimed the lead on two Turner free throws, Spiller scored in the post off an assist from Davies. Atwell hit a pull-up jumper to beat the shot clock and drained a 3-pointer to give UH a 48-43 lead with 4:10 left.
Davies went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line over the next three minutes to set a career high.
