Hawaii basketball: 4 seeds for Rainbow Warriors, Wahine
Sixteen games of conference play brought the Hawaii men’s and women’s basketball teams to the same place on Saturday.
That being, the 4 seed in next week’s Big West tournaments.
With an 86-82 loss at Cal State Northridge for the men (8-8 Big West) and a 75-58 win over Cal Poly on senior night for the women (9-7), both squads landed pretty squarely in the middle of the pack.
In the Rainbow Warriors’ case, that meant a matchup against UC Davis in the 4-5 pairing — a 5:30 p.m. HST quarterfinal, ESPN3-streamed, at the Honda Center in the last matchup of the day on Thursday.
For the Rainbow Wahine, they get a team to be determined at 5:30 HST on Wednesday at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid, depending on who comes out of the first round there the day before. UH will face the highest (best) seed remaining, which could be the host team for the first two rounds, LBSU, the No. 5 seed. (If the Beach beats No. 8 Cal Poly on Tuesday, UH will draw LBSU.)
The UH women still did themselves good by winning on senior night, snapping a four-game losing streak and avoiding having to play on the first day. Senior guard Julissa Tago set the tone with a big first quarter and hit the 1,000-point career mark.
>> PHOTO GALLERY: HAWAII VS. CAL POLY
Here were interviews with the three Wahine seniors after their ceremonies:
On senior night, senior guard Julissa Tago put in 19 points to become #HawaiiWBB’s 22nd member of the 1,000-point club.
She got that out of the way in the opening minutes, scoring 11 in the first quarter.
“I just wanted to set the tone early.” pic.twitter.com/As6h1LygGE
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 8, 2020
Senior guard Courtney Middap scored five points and had a steal in the final home game of her four-year #HawaiiWBB career. pic.twitter.com/PJRCHSU2of
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 8, 2020
Two-year #HawaiiWBB guard Savannah Reier had 4 points and 4 rebounds in her final home game.
The lei might’ve been her biggest obstacle of the night.
“I’m allergic to grass, trees, but it’s OK, I took allergy pills.” pic.twitter.com/lkPCEA41oF
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 8, 2020
Here’s the final regular-season standings for the men and women (note that seeding order is not necessarily the same based on tiebreakers).
The men:
Updated March 7
| Conference | Overall | |||
| W-L | Pct. | W-L | Pct. | |
| UC Irvine | 13-3 | .813 | 21-11 | .656 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 10-6 | .625 | 21-10 | .677 |
| Cal State Northridge | 10-6 | .625 | 15-17 | .469 |
| Hawaii | 8-8 | .500 | 17-13 | .567 |
| UC Davis | 8-8 | .500 | 14-18 | .438 |
| UC Riverside | 7-9 | .438 | 17-15 | .531 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 6-10 | .375 | 11-20 | .355 |
| Long Beach State | 6-10 | .375 | 11-21 | .344 |
| Cal Poly | 4-12 | .250 | 7-23 | .233 |
The women:
Through March 11
| Conference | Overall | |||
| W-L | Pct. | W-L | Pct. | |
| UC Davis | 12-4 | .750 | 17-12 | .586 |
| Hawaii | 9-7 | .563 | 16-14 | .533 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 9-7 | .563 | 14-15 | .483 |
| UC Irvine | 9-7 | .563 | 13-18 | .419 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 8-8 | .500 | 17-14 | .548 |
| Long Beach State | 8-8 | .500 | 13-17 | .433 |
| Cal State Northridge | 7-9 | .438 | 12-19 | .387 |
| Cal Poly | 6-10 | .375 | 11-18 | .379 |
| UC Riverside | 4-12 | .250 | 8-22 | .267 |
The Wahine will do better than the men for sure.
Hoping the Wahine play like they did in the last game. I liked their mojo.