The Hawaii women’s basketball team has gone from promising outlook to a squad searching for its identity, and coach Laura Beeman can’t explain it.

The early-season struggles for the defending Big West Conference champion continued Friday with a 54-51 loss to Air Force in the Rainbow Wahine Showdown before 701 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

“We have to figure out who we are as a team right now,” Beeman said. “We have no idea who we are as a team.

“This is a very different team from last year. Why? I don’t know.”

Rainbow Wahine guard Kelsie Imai questioned her team’s toughness.

“The main thing that’s missing is, we don’t have that dog in us,” she said.

The Rainbow Wahine (1-4) had a chance to tie it, but Daejah Phillips missed a rushed 3-pointer from the left wing as time expired.

“We were thinking they were going to go with the 3, so we just wanted to defend the perimeter,” Air Force coach Chris Gobrecht said.

Imani Perez scored 15 points and Phillips added 10 for Hawaii, which has 11 returnees and was predicted to repeat as Big West champion.

Hawaii committed 22 turnovers against Air Force and was beaten on the offensive boards 15-8. Air Force committed 11 turnovers.

“Tough loss. They took us completely out of our offense and we turned it over 22 times, which is way too many. Once again we got smeared on the offensive boards,” Beeman said.

Hawaii finished 17-for-42, including 2-for-13 from the field and 0-for-8 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.

Madison Smith and Milahnie Perry each scored 16 points for Air Force, which shot 18-for-55 from the field.

“They were tough because they were inviting us to shoot the 3 and that’s not our forte,” Gobrecht said.

“They were packing it in pretty good and we had a tough time getting inside.”

Hawaii took its largest lead at 37-30 after a layup by Perez off an assist from Phillips with 3:22 remaining in the third.

Dasha MacMillan and Keelie O’Hollaren hit 3-pointers to get the Falcons (4-1) within one with 22 seconds left.

Imai made a layup as time expired to give the Rainbow Wahine a 39-36 lead entering the fourth.

Air Force went on a 10-2 run to open the fourth to take a 46-41 advantage with 5:12 remaining. Perry scored seven points during the surge.

Hawaii started the fourth 0-for-7 from the field with four turnovers. The Rainbow Wahine’s first basket of the quarter was a steal and layup by Lily Wahinekapu with 3:27 left, which cut Hawaii’s deficit to 46-45.

The Rainbow Wahine were within 50-49 after a pair of free throws by Perez with 33 seconds remaining.

The Falcons’ Smith hit two from the line with 22 seconds remaining, the Rainbow Wahine’s Wahinekapu hit a basket with 12 seconds to go and Jayda McNabb sunk a pair at the line with 10 seconds remaining to put Air Force up 54-51.

The Falcons started the game 0-for-9 from the field, with their first basket coming from Smith with 3:42 left in the first quarter, which cut the Rainbow Wahine’s lead to 8-4.

Hawaii shot 5-of-10 from the field and committed six turnovers in the quarter. Air Force was 3-for-16, with all the field goals by Smith.

The Rainbow Wahine had just one shot attempt — which missed — and committed four turnovers over the first five minutes of the second quarter.

The Falcons took their first lead on MacMillan’s putback, which made it 13-12 with 7:42 left before halftime.

There were two ties and seven lead changes the rest of the way.

The Rainbow Wahine got a late lift from Imai, who hit a 3-pointer with 28 seconds remaining and made a layup with three seconds left to put Hawaii up 24-20.

“On the last one, Daejah and MeiLani (McBee) had a good defensive stop and I made my way down the court and MeiLani found me and I couldn’t have another 3, so I took it to the basket.”

The Rainbow Wahine shot 9-for-19 from the field and committed 11 turnovers before halftime, while the Falcons went 7-for-30 with four turnovers.

Hawaii’s Perez scored six points in the first half, while Air Force’s Smith had eight.

In Friday’s earlier game, Washington beat Idaho State 57-37.

The Rainbow Wahine will face Idaho State today at 2:30 p.m., and Washington on Sunday at 5 p.m.