If there is a panic button nearby, Laura Beeman isn’t pressing it any time soon.
The Hawaii women’s basketball coach said Wednesday she wasn’t angry about the Rainbow Wahine’s first loss in Big West play last Saturday at UC Riverside, which dropped them out of first place a half-game behind UC Santa Barbara.
The “recipe” as she called it is to take care of home court, which Hawaii will try to do its next two games starting tonight against Long Beach State.
UH (7-7, 4-1) welcomes a team that won both regular-season meetings last season before losing to the Rainbow Wahine in the semifinals of the Big West tournament.
The Beach (6-10, 1-5) are going through a transition under first-year coach Amy Wright, whose motto is to play “fast, furious and fun.”
Long Beach State is second in the conference averaging 66.8 points per game and is first in rebounding at 40.2, including a league-high 12.6 on the offensive glass.
Hawaii is second in scoring defense at 56.1 points per game and allowed more than 50 points for the first time in Big West play against the Highlanders.
“Long Beach is going to be a challenge. They play very small and they play very fast,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “They play a five-out, drive and kick. They have some Princeton principles in there. If our bigs can’t contain the guards, they have to just pursue the ball and gobble up rebounds so we can push the other way.”
With a rotation that is nine players deep who average at least 11 minutes a game, Beeman has repeated her preference is stay big on the floor. Forward Imani Perez leads the team averaging more than 30 minutes a game and center Brooklyn Rewers is playing 24 minutes a game and leading the team in rebounds.
That changed against the Highlanders as Hawaii went small the majority of the second half and even played a handful of minutes with five guards on the floor.
“My hope is that our bigs have kind of learned a valuable lesson and this week’s practice has given them the opportunity to understand to use your length, gobble up the ball with rebounds, but offensively they have to demand double- and triple-teams so we have kickouts or they have to go to work and score,” Beeman said. “It’s the style of the game that is going to depend if we go two bigs, one big, or completely small.”
Beeman has put the same starting five on the court for every conference game so far, but has gotten key contributions from her bench.
Junior guard Daejah Phillips is third on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game while averaging 26 minutes a contest.
Guards Ashley Thoms and Kelsie Imai are also averaging nearly 20 minutes a game and have been able to keep UH relatively fresh on the floor.
Imai, in particular, has made her presence felt with her ability to push the ball up the floor and bring the intensity up the moment she’s summoned from the bench.
“Our second string has been great for us. (Thoms), Kelsie, Daejah, you come in with a lineup like that and those three start for most of the teams in our conference in my opinion,” Beeman said. “Kelsie’s pace and push and kind of her feisty attitude, I think Kelsie has been as equally important to us as Daejah coming off the bench. She doesn’t have Daejah numbers but teams know when Kelsie comes in that there’s going to be a defensive intensity and a push offensively.”
Hawaii’s off to a 4-1 start in Big West play for the second time in the last three seasons. UH will close the homestead Saturday against UC San Diego (7-9, 3-2), which hosts UC Irvine tonight.
Rainbow Wahine basketball
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Hawaii (7-7, 4-1 Big West) vs. Long Beach State (6-10, 1-5)
>> When: Today, 7 p.m.
Hawaii vs. UC San Diego (7-9, 3-2)
>> When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: KHKA 1500-AM (Today); KKEA 1420-AM (Saturday)
