Rainbow Wahine come up short in 57-47 home loss to UC Davis

A cold shooting night while facing the Big West’s leading scorer left the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team once again in bounce-back mode.

UC Davis guard Evanne Turner scored 23 points to lead the Aggies to a 57-47 win over a shorthanded Rainbow Wahine rotation on Thursday before a crowd of 595 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Turner entered the week averaging a league-high 15.9 points per game and scored UC Davis’ first nine points of the fourth quarter as the Aggies (10-11, 6-5 Big West) held off the Rainbow Wahine (8-12, 6-5) to tie UH for fifth place in the conference.

Turner also leads the Big West in 3-point shooting and went 3-for-9 from long range, two coming in a 9-2 UC Davis run in the final period. Tess Sussman also hit three 3-pointers in a 13-point performance for the Aggies.

With a new-look rotation forced by recent injuries, the Wahine shot 25% from the field, finishing 15-for-60, and connected on just two of their 23 3-point attempts. They went 0-for-15 from behind the arc over the last three quarters.

UH lost guard Jovi Lefotu and forward Jacque David to season-ending lower leg injuries over the past week and they watched the game from behind the UH bench along with guard Olivia Davies, who had surgery last month.

“We knew tonight was going to be tough,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “Losing the amount of firepower on both sides of the ball that we did and just the emotional drain of that, we knew it was going to be challenging.

“We have to do a better job on rebounding, we have to do a better job of hitting free throws. That has nothing to do with the emotion of the week, that is a matter of doing your job. That is something we have to get better on in the next 48 hours.”

UH (8-12, 6-5 Big West), which has alternated losses and wins for the past nine games, will look to bounce back again on Saturday against Cal Poly (6-13, 3-8). The Mustangs knocked off UC Santa Barbara 69-64 on Thursday in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

“I think it’s going to give us more motivation to make sure we key on the mistakes that we made in this game and carry it on to the next game so it doesn’t happen again,” UH guard Lily Wahinekapu said.

Wahinekapu scored seven of her team-high 14 points in the third quarter and guard Daejah Phillips added 10 points off the bench in her return to the rotation after missing last week’s road trip.

UC Davis held a 45-39 edge on the boards and UH tried to chip away at a 35-22 halftime deficit, closing to within seven at 42-35 in the third quarter. While they created opportunities to trim the gap from the free-throw line, a 15-for-24 performance contributed to the outcome.

Phillips went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the first quarter but went back to the bench less than a minute into the second quarter with her second foul.

UC Davis led 25-20 when Tova Sabel hit the first of her two 3-pointers in a 10-0 Aggies run. UH went nearly seven minutes without a field goal until Wahinekapu scored on a drive to beat the shot clock with 49 seconds left in the half.

The Aggies carried a 44-37 lead into the fourth quarter and took command when Turner scored on a drive while drawing a foul and later knocked down two 3-pointers to extend the lead to 53-39 with less than five minutes to play.

“Evanne’s a good player, and when you close her out she’s going to put the ball on the floor and attack,” Beeman said.

“We had some breakdowns on those switches. Some of those blow-bys the posts weren’t in a position they needed to be, so we just had some rotational problems. “There were some 3s for sure, but it was more some of the offensive rebounds where you work really hard for 20-25 seconds, (they) get a rebound, then they go back to work again and you have to play another 30-35 seconds of defense. That’s tough.”

UH cut the deficit to eight when Nnenna Orji scored inside with 2:20 left but would get no closer.