The No. 1 seeded Hawaii women’s basketball team hasn’t forgotten how last year’s Big West Conference Championship ended, even if they don’t talk about it.
In what has felt like a year-long journey for the nine returnees that began quickly after last season’s stunning loss as the top seed in the semifinals of the conference tournament, the Rainbow Wahine have worked their way back to the same position they were in when UC Davis held UH to 48 points in a stunning one-and-done exit in March.
Hawaii, which arrived in Nevada on Monday, has to wait one more day before playing in the same noon local timeslot in a Friday semifinal in Henderson, Nev., against a team that has already played at least once this week.
The Rainbow Wahine (22-8) will take on the winner of today’s second-round game between No. 8 seed Cal Poly (14-17), which upset No. 5 seed UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, and No. 4 seed UC San Diego (17-15).
“I think any type of competitive athlete doesn’t forget about a loss that hurts, and I think last year’s loss really hurt,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said Tuesday, referencing the 51-48 defeat to the Aggies that kept her team from a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance. “We haven’t talked about it much as a group. I don’t think we need to. I think we all know that we picked a bad day to play bad. We’re just keeping our eye on this year and what our ultimate goal is.”
Hawaii, which is in the semifinals of its conference tournament for a seventh consecutive season, rattled off 14 straight victories en route to a third regular-season conference championship in four years.
Senior guard Lily Wahinekapu, who on Tuesday became the third player in program history to earn the Big West Player of the Year award, said before the start of the season she took last year’s loss hard.
She shot 1-for-14 from the field, and missed two free throws in the final 10 seconds with her team trailing by a point.
She’s battled back to earn the conference’s top award as the Big West’s best player and has the opportunity in front of her to close her career adding another championship trophy to Hawaii’s quickly increasing collection.
“Last year a lot of things happened in that game. Injuries, and missing shots,” Wahinekapu said Tuesday. “This is a new game, a new year, a new tournament now, so (the team is) just going in with a clean slate and playing our hardest out there and playing smart too.”
Junior forward Imani Perez was named to the All-Big West second team and the All-Big West defensive team on Tuesday. She anchored a group that finished the regular season leading the country in 3-point percentage allowed at 24.7%. UH was also third among Division I teams in field-goal shooting defense at 33.2% and seventh in points allowed at 52.9 per game.
In Hawaii’s last two games away from home it gave up 61 and 74 points in losses to UC Riverside and UC Davis.
To win the next two games, Beeman said they must get back to what they have done best.
“I always expect our defense to travel. We have shown it all year long,” Beeman said. “We can put a gameplan on paper and these kids can execute it. I think we have to be better on both sides of the ball in this tournament if we want to win it.”
Perez, who also earned All-Big West defensive and second-team honors as a sophomore, said the team is feeling “a good vibe” and is prepared and locked in.
“We’re ready for the games to get started,” she said. “I think we’ve put in the work in order to get to this point. We still have growth and we still continue to work on it and there’s always room for improvement … but our team has definitely been locking in more as we’re toward the end and it’s the important part of everything.”
BIG WEST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
At Lee Family Forum, Henderson, Nev.
Today’s second round
>> (8) Cal Poly vs. (4) UC San Diego, 9 a.m.
>> (7) UC Riverside vs. (3) UC Davis, 11:30 a.m.
Friday’s semifinals
>> Hawaii vs. CP/UCSD, 9 a.m.
>> (2) UC Irvine vs. UCD/UCR, 11:30 a.m.
Saturday’s championship
Semifinal winners, noon
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>> Stream: ESPN+ (all games)
>> Radio: 1420-AM (Hawaii games only)
