HONOLULU — Lili Thompson enjoyed quite the happy homecoming Saturday.
Thompson scored 26 points and Amber Orrange added 19 as No. 5 Stanford beat Hawaii 86-73 during the second day of the Rainbow Wahine Shootout.
Erica McCall added 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Kaylee Johnson chipped in 10 points and eight boards for the Cardinal (4-2), who shot a blistering 57 percent from the field and 67 percent on 3-pointers.
“I will take that any day of the week,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said of her team’s hot shooting. “Sometimes you’re gonna hit and sometimes you’re not. We did shoot the ball really well, I’m really excited about that. Amber and Lili led the way with really good guard play.”
Thompson, a sophomore guard who spent part of her childhood in Hawaii, made 8 of her 14 shots from the field, including 6 of 7 from behind the arc. She also made all four of her free throws.
“My teammates just kept finding me and luckily I could knock it down,” Thompson said.
Stanford, which led by as many as 16 points early in the second half, rebounded from a 16-point loss to No. 11 North Carolina on Friday.
The Tar Heels beat Prairie View 81-45 in the earlier game Saturday.
The Rainbow Wahine (4-2) had four scorers in double figures, led by Shawlina Segovia’s 17 points.
Hawaii, which scored on seven of its first eight possessions, led by as many as eight early in the first half, but cooled off considerably once senior guard Shawna-Lei Kuehu left with her second foul at the 9:19 mark.
Stanford took its first lead of the game at 23-22 seconds after Kuehu left on a free throw by Orrange.
The Rainbow Wahine reclaimed the lead briefly on a pair of Morgan Mason free throws, but Orrange hit a 15-footer to ignite a 20-4 run late in the first half.
Stanford held a 48-34 lead at halftime.
Hawaii went on a 9-0 run in the second half to cut the Stanford lead to 59-53 with 11:17 left to play, but got no closer.
Thompson attended Punahou School — the same school Kuehu spent her prep days — before her family moved to Texas. She was greeted by a few dozen well-wishers and former teammates following the game.
“It’s great, you know, riding in the bus looking out the window at all the places I used to see on a daily basis,” Thompson said. “Looking back, it was great to see so many friends and family come out.”