One more stop.
Points came in a trickle for much of Hawaii’s duel with Long Beach State on Saturday night and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team held a one-point lead and needed to protect the basket for another 2.1 seconds to knock off the Big West leader.
But a hard foul, two free throws by guard Courtney Murphy with 1.7 seconds left and the last of UH’s 23 turnovers sent Long Beach State to a 48-47 win before a crowd of 967 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
After Long Beach celebrated its 12th straight victory, UH coach Laura Beeman pointed to the offensive struggles earlier in the evening as the key rather than the final seconds.
“You all saw the best team in our conference tonight,” Beeman said of the Beach. “They play very well defensively, they’re very aggressive … I thought we did a really nice job of holding a team that averages close to 60-70 points a game to 48.
“We have to be better on the offensive side of the ball. Tonight we just did not have an efficient effort with the players that were available for us tonight.”
The exception to that assessment was guard Lily Wahinekapu, who scored a season-high 21 points and drained five 3-pointers as UH turned a 26-21 halftime deficit into a 40-37 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“Coming in after halftime we were down, but I thought our team stuck together and we clamped up on defense a little bit more,” Wahinekapu said. “We broke the press a little bit better and were able to get a little more time on the (shot) clock.”
“Lily was the only one willing to shoot the ball,” Beeman said. “Every time she had a window she shot it.”
Wahinekapu and forward Kallin Spiller combined for 21 of UH’s 26 points in the second half and the Wahine led 47-44 when Spiller, who finished with 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting, scored in the post with 53.4 seconds left.
After a timeout, Tori Harris scored on a drive to bring the Beach within a point with 41.4 seconds showing. UH’s next possession resulted in a shot-clock violation and the Beach took possession with 10 seconds left.
After a UH foul, the Beach inbounded under the basket with 2.1 seconds left. Murphy made a sharp cut along the baseline and found herself open until she went crashing to the floor on a hard foul by Spiller.
After an extended wait while the officials reviewed the time remaining, Murphy’s first free throw rattled around the rim before falling and her second gave the Beach the lead.
“Obviously the read was great by Courtney,” Long Beach State coach Jeff Cammon said of the inbounds play. “That’s not part of (the set). She just made a basketball play. And I’m glad Ma’Qhi (Berry) saw her at the last second. I thought it was going to be five seconds (violation), because it took her so long to see her. But she made a great read outside of our set, and I mean, for her to make those free throws was just huge.”
UH called timeout and advanced the ball into the frontcourt. But the inbounds pass was stolen and Long Beach (19-7, 14-2 Big West) celebrated a sweep of the season series between the teams.
“Kallin had 13 points. Yeah, she fouled, but it had nothing to do with that last play,” Beeman said. “There was 39 seconds and 40-something seconds that affected us more than that play.”
Long Beach State guard Malia Bambrick led the Beach with 12 points, all coming in the first half. The Beach forced 23 UH turnovers, including 11 steals, scored 17 points off turnovers, and prevailed despite a 32.1% shooting performance from the field and a 3-for-11 showing in the fourth quarter.
“We know they’re going to turn you over, but you gotta keep it in that 19-to-21 (range),” Beeman said. “When you start getting over 22 you have to turn them over to you and have to shoot better than we shot tonight.”
UH (11-13, 9-6 Big West) shot 40.5% from the field, going 7-for-10 in the third quarter, but went 3-for-10 in the fourth. The Wahine conclude their homestand at 2 p.m. on Monday against CSU Bakersfield.
Aside from Wahinekapu and Spiller, the rest of the UH lineup went 4-for-19 from the field, with nobody making more than one field goal.
“If this situation doesn’t motivate people to get in the gym and get better I don’t know what does, because this one hurts,” Beeman said. “This one is frustrating because we had it. At least we felt like we had it.”
