The point guard is making a point about toughness.
In last week’s women’s basketball game, Hawaii’s Kelsie Imai was inadvertently elbowed in the mouth. She lost more than half a front tooth, requiring a root canal and a cap.
“I’ve been pretty frustrated trying to play with the (mouth) guard because I wasn’t able to talk,” the Rainbow Wahine’s vocal leader said.
Coach Laura Beeman said: “The other night, she was, like, mouthpiece in, took it out, said something, passed the ball, put it back in. She’ll figure it out.”
Beeman is hopeful the 2-5 Rainbow Wahine also will rebound when they play host to San Jose State today in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. for the Wahine’s final home game of the calendar year.
“We haven’t had great chemistry,” Beeman said, a reference to injuries and a scrunched schedule that included a stretch of five games in 10 days. She said the Wahine, who average 49.4 points, “should be putting 70 points on the board, not high 40s, low 50s. We have the offensive weapons and threats to do that.”
In the five losses, all to opponents with winning records, “we have a tendency, when we kind of get punched in the mouth, to not respond well,” Beeman said. “And I think that’s probably our area of growth. … Basketball is a game of runs, it’s a game of momentum shifts. And if you can’t get too high or too low, and you stay consistent, chances are you’re going to come up on the right side of the win-loss column. Right now, we’ve had a hard time of not getting really, really low. I don’t know if it’s one thing. I think it’s a culmination of a lot of different factors.”
In the past two seasons, the Wahine have flourished after slow starts. After going 3-6 in nonconference games in 2021-22, the Wahine went 13-3 in the Big West en route to winning the league’s regular-season and tournament titles. A 1-7 start to last season ended up with another Big West Tournament championship.
“If I had to do it all over again,” Beeman said, “I wouldn’t change where we are in our record if it means we’re going to be better down the stretch, and I know we can.”
San Jose State (4-5) has four double-digit scorers, led by freshman guard Jyah LoVett (12.1 points per game) and forward/center Amhyia Moreland (11.1 points per game on 62.9% accuracy). The Spartans employ three types of full-court presses. They average 11.2 steals per game.
“We’ve been focusing a lot on defense, and we’ve been doing better at defense,” Imai said. “Now we need to put our offense together and get that going. Get our plays together, knowing when to transition and when not to transition, and just being organized on offense. That’s the biggest thing.”
Wahine post Imani Perez is averaging a team-high 8.6 points on 50% shooting, including 42.1% on 3s. Point guard Lily Wahinekapu is returning to form after a lower-leg ailment kept her from playing against Santa Clara on Nov. 11.
“I think this team wanted to be 5-2 and we’re 2-5, and that’s caused them to feel like they’ve let some people down,” Beeman said. “It’s our job as coaches, particularly mine, to get them back feeling good about themselves and to put them in a position to be successful. And we can do that definitely.”
—
NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
>> Who: San Jose State (4-5) vs. Hawaii (2-5)
>> When: Today at 2 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
