Hawaii women’s basketball: Rainbow Wahine down Cal State Fullerton for Big West semifinal berth
The following appeared on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s breaking news:
The Hawaii women’s basketball team locked down Cal State Fullerton, 72-59, Wednesday at a mostly empty Walter Pyramid to advance to the Big West tournament semifinals on Friday.
No. 4 UH (16-14) faces No. 2 UC Santa Barbara (14-15) at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. UH and UCSB split the regular-season series, with each team winning on the opponent’s home court.
#HawaiiWBB coach Laura Beeman breaks down the challenge UH will face in the semifinals Friday against UC Santa Barbara.
Danae Miller beat UH at the buzzer with a jumper, 57-56, in the teams’ meeting last week. pic.twitter.com/pvWXUlqvaX
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 12, 2020
>> PHOTO GALLERY: HAWAII VS. CAL STATE FULLERTON
Senior guard Julissa Tago led the Rainbow Wahine with 15 points. Freshman point guard Nae Nae Calhoun added 10 points and seven rebounds in front of empty seats; the Big West barred most spectators due to the coronavirus threat.
Big West Player of the Year Raina Perez struggled against the length of the Wahine, shooting 2-for-12 in the first half and 4-for-20 for the game. Fullerton (17-14), coached by Hawaii native Jeff Harada, shot 25% in the first half and 35.6% overall. Titans second-leading scorer Taylor Turney led the Titans with 16 points.
#HawaiiWBB freshman point guard Nae Nae Calhoun on the defensive effort against Big West Player of the Year Raina Perez, the Fullerton guard who shot 4-for-20:
“She was going to make shots … it was trying to get her to make hard shots.” pic.twitter.com/trtOnnQumb
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) March 12, 2020
UH, which shot 47.1%, controlled the first quarter, leading 18-7 after a period. Perez got off to an 0-for-7 start.
The Wahine built a 12-point lead early in the second quarter on a 3 by Amy Atwell. Two more triples later in the period by Courtney Middap and Kasey Neubert pushed it to 13. That was the margin at half as UH led 33-20, with seven different players supplying a field goal.
UH went up 18 early in the third quarter, leading 40-22 on a three-point play by Tago. The lead hit 19 on a 3 by Jadynn Alexander. Fullerton then rallied to within 46-36, but UH pushed it back to 12 going to the fourth.
The Titans made one last rally to within 11 points, 60-49, but Tago scored 10 of her points in the final period to put them away.
In the first game of the day, No. 8 Cal Poly scored an upset on the second straight day, dominating No. 3 UC Irvine 70-49.
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Kudos to Stephen Tsai for the above embedded video.
Congratulations to the Wahine. I followed the game on LiveStats, so it’s not a complete perspective, but it seemed the Wahine controlled the tempo and had many players involved in the offense. Congrats to coach Beeman for the game plan and the players for executing.