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Hawaii forward Kallin Spiller scored nine of her season-high 18 points in the fourth quarter and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team rallied for a 50-47 win over Cal Poly today at the Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Splller went 6-for-8 from the field with three 3-pointers to help the Rainbow Wahine (4-7, 2-0 Big West) win their third straight and complete a sweep of the opening road trip of conference play.
Guard Olivia Davies went 7-for-9 from the free-throw line to finish with nine points and UH overcame a 29% shooting performance from the field.
Cal Poly opened the first and second quarters with 8-0 runs while Hawaii struggled to a 4-for-23 shooting performance and trailed 23-14 after its lowest scoring first half of the season.
The Rainbow Wahine answered Cal Poly’s opening surge, highlighted by two Junie Dickson 3-pointers, by allowing one basket over the final seven minutes of the first quarter. The Wahine got a boost off the bench from freshman center Imani Perez to cut the deficit to 10-9. Perez contributed five points, four offensive rebounds and a block in the quarter.
Nikola Kovacikova hit two 3-pointers to open the second quarter and Jazzy Anousinh’s driving jumper gave the Mustangs an 18-9 lead. The Wahine went scoreless in the period until Kelsie Imai hit a pull-up jumper at the 4:22 mark for UH’s lone field goal of the period. Dickson hit her third 3-pointer of the half and converted a steal into a layup to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 23-12.
Spiller connected on two 3-pointers in a 10-2 UH run to open the third quarter. Freshman Jovi Lefotu’s driving layup forced the game’s first tie at 26-26.
Ca Poly’s Annika Shah hit two 3-pointers in another 8-0 Cal Poly run and the Mustangs took a 36-33 lead into the fourth quarter.
Trailing 41-37 at the 7:17 mark, UH held Cal Poly without a field goal over the next 5:51 and took its first lead at 42-41 on a Spiller free throw with 4:30 left.
Spiller scored again off an assist from Daejah Phillips to give UH a 44-43 lead and her jumper with 58 seconds left extended the lead to 48-45.
After two Cal Poly free throws and one from Phillips, the Mustangs missed two shots to tie and Davies came down with the rebound with 8.9 seconds left. Davies made one of two from the line and Cal Poly’s last second 3-pointer was off the mark.
UH returns home to face UC San Diego in its Big West home opener on Thursday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
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