Rainbow Wahine play team ball to defeat CSUB

Sustaining momentum was a theme for Hawaii entering Thursday’s women’s basketball matchup with Cal State Bakersfield and remained a focus in a win over the visiting Roadrunners.

Hawaii guard Daejah Phillips scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help the Rainbow Wahine surge to a commanding lead, then hold off CSUB in a 69-52 nonconference win at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Coming off its best shooting night of the season in a win at UC Irvine last Saturday, the Rainbow Wahine hit a season-high 11 3-pointers — with forward Jacque David and guard Meilani McBee draining three each — and five UH players scored at least eight points in its third win over the past four games.

David finished with a season-high 10 points and McBee and forward Amy Atwell added nine points each for the Rainbow Wahine (6-7, 2-1 Big West).

UH coach Laura Beeman got all 11 active members of the roster into the game, with 10 getting into the scoring column. The Wahine distributed 15 assists, led by Phillips’ five, on 21 made field goals.

“The more we’re sharing the ball the more difficult of a matchup we become,” Beeman said, “and that’s what we’re looking to do, to become a difficult scout and difficult matchup.”

The nonconference matchup was added when both teams had games against Cal Poly canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Mustangs program. The Wahine and Roadrunners (1-9, 0-1) will meet again on Saturday in their regularly scheduled game that will count in the Big West standings.

“We’re hunting games right now,” Beeman said. “We need to get into a rhythm, we need to get in game shape. For the fact that Bakersfield (agreed to schedule the game), I was really, really grateful.”

UH led 16-10 after the first quarter and pulled away with a 19-4 surge to open the second quarter. The Wahine shot 7-for-11 from the field in the second quarter and led by as many as 22. CSUB battled back to close to 12 with more than nine minutes left, but the Wahine regained control again when McBee and Phillips hit from long range and two Phillips free throws extended the margin back to 20 at 62-42 with 6:37 left.

“Our whole pregame and postgame and halftime talk was about we need to sustain energy, we need to sustain execution,” Beeman said. “Coming out of halftime we needed to build upon that lead and then sustain it, and you cant lose your focus because good teams will expose you.”

Phillips filled the stat sheet coming off the bench, attacking the basket to score or draw fouls. She went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line and came up one assist short of her career high.

“I like celebrating my teammates,” Phillips said. “I like giving them the ball and them making the shots and we all like celebrating each other.”

UH enjoyed its most productive game from 3-point range despite Atwell going 1-for-5 from behind the arc. Atwell’s shot from the top of the key early in the second quarter gave her 157 for her career to move within 10 of the school record. She’s also 29 points away from reaching the 1,000-point mark.

CSU Bakersfield hadn’t played in nearly three weeks and the rust was evident in a 6-for-31 shooting performance in the first half. The Roadrunners improved to 44% shooting and outscored the Wahine 33-31 in the second half. Jayden Eggleston led CSUB with 17 points and guard Lexus Green hit three 3-pointers to account for her nine points.