Overmatched Hawaii falls to Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

WACO, Texas >> Amy Atwell’s barrage kept Hawaii close through 20 minutes.

Over the next 10, Baylor asserted its dominance to turn Friday’s NCAA Tournament matchup into a blowout.

Atwell hit four 3-pointers and poured in 20 points in a first-half performance that sent the 15th-seeded Rainbow Wahine basketball into the locker room within nine points of the second-seeded and heavily favored Bears.

Any thoughts of Hawaii adding to the madness in the program’s seventh tournament appearance were quickly swept away in a third-quarter torrent led by Baylor All-America forward NaLyssa Smith and guard Jordan Lewis and the Bears ended Hawaii’s season with an 89-49 rout at the Ferrell Center.

Smith, held to four points in the first half, nearly posted a double-double in the third quarter alone with 17 points and nine rebounds, and the Bears (28-6) outscored the Rainbow Wahine 34-8 in the period on their way to the program’s 19th consecutive win in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

As a crowd of 3,855 celebrated at the final buzzer, Atwell walked off the court for the final time after punctuating her six-year Rainbow Wahine career with a 29-point, 13-rebound effort against a Baylor team targeting a fourth national championship.

“Definitely means a lot, and it’s something I’m definitely going to remember,” Atwell said. “Obviously the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but this season has kind of been a fairy tale in itself. It’s been everything that I could have asked for.”

Baylor, the second seed in the Wichita Region, advanced to face 10th-seeded South Dakota, which upset seventh seed Mississippi in the first game of Friday’s sub-regional doubleheader. The Bears and Coyotes meet on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

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The loss ended a landmark season after the Rainbow Wahine (20-10) progressed through the growing pains of a 3-6 start in nonconference play to become the first team in program history to pair the Big West regular-season and tournament titles and earn UH’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016.

“After you lose a game, the sadness isn’t necessarily because of the loss,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “You have disappointment. It’s because you don’t get to coach the same team again. This will be the last time this team plays with one another, and that’s the hard part in coaching and in losing or finishing your season this way.

“Absolutely no regrets, and have thoroughly enjoyed this group and what we’ve done.”

Atwell returned for a sixth year as a graduate student with the expressed goal of earning an opportunity to play in an NCAA Tournament. She thrived under the spotlight and put on a show for a national audience in draining her first two 3-pointers to give UH a 6-2 lead and scoring 12 of UH’s 17 points in the second quarter as the Wahine went into halftime trailing 38-29.

But the Wahine struggled to find much offense other than Atwell and finished the game shooting 22% from the field as a team. While Atwell shot 8-for-20 from the field overall, the rest of the roster went 8-for-52 (15%).

Atwell got some support from freshman forward Nnenna Orji’s six points in the first half, and forward Kallin Spiller finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in her second NCAA Tournament game, her first coming as a freshman at Seattle in 2018.

Baylor switched its defense to assign a guard to shadow Atwell, and Smith and Lewis powered the Bears’ third-quarter surge, combining for 29 points on 10-for-12 shooting in those 10 minutes.

“I thought the first half we played pretty well. We told the girls coming out at halftime, they’re going to up their intensity, you’re going to get the best Baylor this third period. And that’s when Smith kind of took the game over,” Beeman said.

“We shot the ball terribly other than Amy. We needed to hit some shots to slow them down to make it a little bit more tight for them, and we just weren’t able to do that.”

Baylor coach Nicki Collen said Smith had been “a little under the weather, didn’t have a ton of energy, and then somehow kind of rallied in the second half.”

Smith opened the third quarter with a putback and a 3-pointer to spark a 19-3 run that effectively put the game away and finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds in her school record 25th double-double of the season.

The strong and speedy Lewis was the engine of the Baylor attack. She led the Bears with 23 points on 7-for-8 shooting with two 3-pointers and had five assists. She drew eight fouls and went 7-for-11 from the free-throw line.

“Their speed … we don’t see that in the Big West,” Beeman said. “We see avenues and gaps that we think we’ve closed off, and they have the strength and the speed and the skill set to still get to the basket, and that makes it more difficult to continue to guard their post play. … (Lewis’) speed is off the charts. She’s another person that’s going pro, no doubt about it.”

Lewis also took a turn guarding Atwell in the second half to force the ball away from the Big West Player of the Year.

“The message (at halftime) was that we gave up 20 points to one player and we didn’t want to be the team that gave up an NCAA record,” Lewis said. “We had to guard and lock in on defense and get closer to her and make her put it on the floor because she’s a great shooter and has a quick release.”

The Bears shot 53% overall and also dominated on the boards with a 56-35 rebounding advantage.

Guard Sarah Andrews scored 10 of her 16 points early in a run early in the fourth quarter. Queen Egbo, a 6-foot-3 center, added 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Despite the lopsided margin, the final stop didn’t define the journey in Beeman’s 10th year leading the Rainbow Wahine.

“Proud of this team, the way they represented our state and our university,” Beeman said. “I could not have asked for a better representation and effort and wonderful attitude. I’m a very, very, very proud head coach today of this group and what they’ve done.”