Daejah Phillips and Amy Atwell lead first place Rainbow Wahine to road win

Hawaii protected a commanding lead and maintained its place atop the Big West women’s basketball standings with a 75-61 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday in Bakersfield, Calif.

UH trailed for 28 seconds in the first quarter before the combination of Daejah Phillips and Amy Atwell pushed the Rainbow Wahine ahead and helped them keep control through the finish.

CSUB took a 10-8 lead with 3:49 left in the first quarter, but Phillips converted a three-point play and Atwell followed with a 3-pointer and the Wahine held the lead for nearly 37 minutes overall.

Phillips found much of her production in and around the paint while Atwell provided perimeter scoring to lead the Wahine (14-9, 10-3 Big West) with 19 points each in their fourth straight road win.

Phillips went 9-for-13 from the field and Atwell, the Big West’s leading scorer, drained four 3-pointers in a 7-for-12 shooting performance.

“(Phillips) found her mid-range jumper — it wasn’t just at the basket — and she was really a handful,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview.

“Amy did Amy things tonight. She scored on the inside, she scored on the outside. She draws a lot of gravity, so it opens other people up.”

UH point guard Kelsie Imai added 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting and the Wahine shot 54% from the field overall and went 9-for-20 from 3-point range.

“She a competitor, you never worry about Kelsie not showing up and playing hard,” Beeman said. “Any time she can give us 11 points, we want to find multiple scorers and that’s something we’re trying to do night in and night out.”

CSUB center Vanessa Austin led the Roadrunners (4-17, 3-9) with 17 points in their home finale. Forward Jayden Eggleston, who entered the game second in the conference with 15.7 points per game, finished with 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting and 11 rebounds for CSUB.

The Wahine also held Andie Easley, one of the conference’s top 3-point threats, to 1-for-5 shooting from long range.

“That was the goal, to make sure we played their tendencies and not give them anything easy,” Beeman said. “Eggleston does a good job in the mid-range, so we needed to put a hand in her face and not give her easy looks. We just chased (Easley) all over the court and didn’t let her get her feet set.”

UH guard Ashley Thoms started in place of Olivia Davies, who did not suit up for the game, and Beeman credited her defensive effort on the perimeter.

UH guard Nae Nae Calhoun had five points, two assists and three steals before leaving the game with an injury with 2:23 left. Beeman did not have an update on her status after the game. UH led by as many as 22 in the third quarter and CSUB closed to 10 with 2:07 left in the game. But the Wahine were able to maintain a double-digit lead through the finish.

The win kept the Wahine ahead of Long Beach State and UC Irvine (both 11-4), based on winning percentage, going into Saturday’s game at Cal Poly (3-18, 2-10) in their final road contest of the regular season.

“They’re a physical team, they play hard, they play well on their home court. We definitely cannot overlook them,” Beeman said. “We have to be able to get our focus (today) in practice, come up with a good game plan and execute that on Saturday for sure.”