The University of Hawaii women’s basketball team paid four-for-two at the free-throw line on Black Friday.
It was not what anyone would consider a bargain. But Lily Wahinekapu’s four made free throws in the closing seconds that only counted for two points were enough of a deal to ensure a 50-47 comeback victory for UH over Fresno State.
A post-Thanksgiving gathering of 658 at Simplifi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center saw what at first looked like a tryptophan-induced effort by both teams, as neither scored until nearly three minutes into the game. But the intensity, quality of play, and drama ramped up as the featured game of the first day at the American Savings Bank Rainbow Wahine Showdown progressed.
The Lady Bulldogs woke up first and led by 13 early in the third quarter. But the Wahine outscored their guests 30-19 in the second half — or 32-19 if you count the free throws Wahinekapu made with 11 seconds left that officially never happened.
“Only in the NFL, on field goals,” said UH coach Laura Beeman, when asked if she’d ever seen made points come off a scoreboard before.
And this was no coach’s decision — a communications error among officials led to the refs putting Wahinekapu on the stripe with Fresno State having committed just four team fouls in the quarter.
It wasn’t discovered until Wahinekapu started making the two shots, but the error was determined to be correctable. So, UH inbounded again, and Fresno State fouled Wahinekapu again, this time with 10 seconds on the clock instead of 11. And this time the fifth team foul put her on the line.
The senior point guard again turned the one-point lead to three with two more swishes from the line, and this time the points stayed on the board until the end.
Mia Jacobs was team high for Fresno with 14 points, but her buzzer attempt to tie it went awry, and the Bulldogs fell to 5-2 while the Wahine improved to 4-1.
“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss every time, and that was an ugly win,” Beeman said. “Starting in the third quarter we got a spark back.”
Freshman post Ritorya Tamilo continued her impressive early-career play, scoring a game-high 16 points for UH. She tied Daejah Phillips for team high in rebounds with seven, while Jacobs was game high with 18 boards.
Wahinekapu’s 12 (official) points also included a fourth-quarter four-point burst when she went coast-to-coast for a fast break bucket, then scored again immediately after swiping the ensuing inbounds pass. This sequence concluded a 6-0 run that started with Imani Perez’s running hook shot that put UH ahead, 42-40, with 5:45 left to play.
Fresno State broke a 1-for-12 slump from the floor and closed to 48-45 with a trey from Mariah Elohima with 25 seconds left.
UH’s next trip up the court produced Wahinekapu’s free throws that turned out to be practice shots.
“It gave me a chance to go over my checklist for free throws again,” said the senior point guard, who also finished with four steals.
The teams were even, or close to it, in most stats. Both had 42 rebounds and both had 10 blocks (Tamilo and Brooklyn Rewers with three each to lead Hawaii).
Both teams shot poorly overall from the floor. But UH took care of the ball a little better, with 11 turnovers to 14 for Fresno State.
No. 1-ranked UCLA blasted Tennessee-Martin 77-37 in the first game of the round-robin tournament.
The Wahine play the Skyhawks today, and the Bruins on Sunday. Both are slated for 2:30 p.m. tip-offs, with the other two teams meeting at noon each day.
HAWAII 50,
FRESNO STATE 47
BULLDOGS (5-2)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Jacobs 35 3-16 6-6 18 2 3 14
Elohim 35 3-13 0-0 2 1 1 8
Ukkonen 34 3-8 0-0 3 1 5 8
Konstantinid. 27 2-6 1-2 4 0 2 5
Fox 36 1-5 2-2 4 1 1 4
Powell 15 3-3 0-0 1 1 0 6
Williams 8 1-3 0-0 1 0 3 2
Griffiths 4 0-1 0-0 3 0 1 0
Watkins 4 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Amundsen 2 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
TEAM 6
TOTALS 200 16-58 9-10 42 6 17 47
RAINBOW WAHINE (4-1)
MIN FG-A FT-A R A PF PTS
Tamilo 21 7-11 2-3 7 1 1 16
Wahinekapu 29 4-11 4-4 4 1 1 12
Phillips 30 2-10 3-6 7 6 5 8
McBee 32 2-11 0-0 3 0 3 5
Perez 34 1-5 0-0 6 2 3 2
‘Uhila 10 1-3 0-0 3 1 0 3
Peacock 22 1-4 0-0 3 1 0 2
Rewers 11 1-4 0-0 5 0 2 2
Imai 11 0-1 0-0 1 0 2 0
TEAM 3
TOTALS 200 19-60 9-13 42 12 17 50
Fresno State 7 21 9 10 – 47
Hawaii 9 11 16 14 – 50
3-point goals —
Fresno State 6-21 (Ukkonen 2-5, Elohim
2-8, Jacobs 2-8. Hawaii 3-22 (‘Uhila 1-2,
Williams 1-3, McBee 1-7, Rewers 0-1,
Tamilo 0-1, Peacock 0-2, Perez 0-3, Wahinekapu 0-3). Steals — Fresno State 3 (Fox
2, Williams). Hawaii 10 (Wahinekapu 4,
Perez 2, Phillips 2, Imai, Tamilo). Blocked
shots — Fresno State 2 (Griffiths, Konstantinidou). Hawaii 10 (Rewers 3, Tamilo 3,
Peacock 2, Perez 2). Turnovers — Fresno
State 14 (Elohim 3, Jacobs 3, Ukkonen 3,
Powell 2, Williams 2, Fox). Hawaii 11 (Wahinekapu 3, Perez 2, Team 2, McBee, Peacock, Phillips, Rewers). Technical fouls
— none. Officials — Tim Tamashiro, Israel
Luna, Benny Luna. A — 1,658.
