Hawaii women’s basketball needs overtime to win eighth in a row
Jovi Lefotu scored the go-ahead layup in overtime with 58 seconds remaining and the Hawaii women’s basketball team held on to defeat UC San Diego 65-63 tonight at LionTree Arena in La Jolla, Calif.
Lily Wahinekapu scored a game-high 19 points and converted one of two free throws with eight seconds left in overtime to put UH ahead by two.
The Tritons dribbled down the court and had the ball poked out of bounds with less than two seconds remaining. UCSD had one final inbounds play and Gracie Gallegos got wide open on the opposite block for a layup but decided to take a dribble and put a shot up contested that didn’t go in as the buzzer sounded.
Hawaii (14-6, 8-2 Big West) won its eighth straight game to remain in a first-place tie with UC Irvine, which the Rainbow Wahine own the tiebreaker over after beating the Anteaters on Saturday.
UC San Diego fell to 10-12 overall and 6-4 in the Big West, two back of first place.
Wahinekapu scored five points in the final 1:08 of regulation to help get the game into overtime and added eight rebounds, three assists and a steal.
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Imani Perez tied a career high with three made 3-pointers and added 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Kelsie Imai chipped in 10 points, four assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes played off the bench and Lefotu finished with eight points, three rebounds and two steals.
Hawaii won despite 22 turnovers.
The Rainbow Wahine will finish this week’s road trip at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at noon.
