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The announcement came three times within the first two minutes.
“Amy Atwell for threeee.”
The phrase would come through the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center speakers three more times in the first half as the University of Hawaii forward made a splash — six, actually — to open her final homestand.
Atwell’s barrage early in Thursday’s game against Cal State Northridge helped propel the Rainbow Wahine to a 21-point lead in the second quarter that matched her point total in a remarkable first half.
UH’s shooting cooled considerably after halftime as the visiting Matadors closed to within seven in the third quarter and trailed by eight with 7:53 left in the game.
But guard Daejah Phillips scored 11 of her 19 points in the second half to help the Wahine hold on for a 75-62 win to protect their lead in the Big West regular-season title chase.
“Not a pretty second half, but we’ll take the first half,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “It’s tournament time, it’s championship basketball, so we knew that team wasn’t going to roll over and fall asleep on us.
“We just struggled on offense in the second half. We had some easy open looks that we missed, defensively we lost some assignments, and then we locked back in like we normally do. … Overall, really proud of this group. This is not an easy time of year — everyone is gunning for us, so were going to keep growing.”
With the win, the Rainbow Wahine (16-9, 12-3 BWC, .800) remained ahead of second-place UC Irvine (18-10, 13-4). UC Irvine hung on for a 67-66 win over Cal Poly earlier Thursday to keep pace with UH.
UH closes the regular season against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, with Atwell set to be honored in the postgame senior ceremony. UC Irvine finishes at home against CSU Bakersfield on Saturday, but the Wahine are looking to keep control of their fortunes rather than rely on help from afar.
“I think it’s really nice to be in the position where we are controlling our own destiny,” Atwell said. “It’s a good feeling, but we have work to do still.”
Atwell went 6-for-10 from behind the arc in the first half, draining her fourth to beat the buzzer and give UH a 25-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
She hit her final 3-pointer of the night with eight seconds left in the game — a shot she acknowledged she perhaps should not have taken — to tie her career high of seven and finished with 26 points in her penultimate appearance at home.
“I was just lucky enough that the first shot went through and I’m a bit like that — when one goes in it gets me rolling,” Atwell said. “But it was really nice to be able to start the game like that. … It doesn’t happen very often.”
The Matadors stuck closer to Atwell in the second half to limit her to just 1-for-6 shooting after the break.
But Phillips converted three-point plays after getting into the paint on three occasions in the second half to stall the CSUN threats.
“I knew we had to get rebounds and I knew I had to get into attack mode,” said Phillips, who led the Wahine with seven boards and five assists.
UH point guard Kelsie Imai added seven points and four assists as the Wahine committed a season-low six turnovers.
The Wahine had 12 assists on 16 made baskets in the first half while shooting 50% from the field. Their efficiency dropped to 23% in the second half and they went 0-for-12 from 3-point range before Ashley Thoms got one to fall with just under a minute left in the game to give UH a 72-58 cushion.
“The ball got sticky for a while,” Beeman said of the second half. “We were dribbling too deep and we were allowing them to collapse and then they would close us out too quick. We have to recognize what defenses are doing.
“In the first quarter we were moving the ball very, very well. I think they lost track of where Amy was and that always opens things up and (in the) second half Daejah turned it on.”
CSUN guard Macy Smith hit four 3-pointers and led the Matadors (9-18, 5-12) with 20 points and forward Tess Amundsen added 16 and guard Jordyn Jackson finished with 14.
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