Besides the good times he’s shared with them off the court, University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s coach David Kaneshiro will remember his eight seniors for their good wins on the court.
And now comes the real work: replacing them all.
Kaneshiro already has gotten a head start on that endeavor, and he got a final look Saturday night at all the production that is walking out the door. Kirstie Williams scored 18 points, CC Rose finished with 17 and five seniors reached double-figures in all as the Vulcans tamed Dominican 80-71 at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
“It was nice to see them go out on such a high note,” Kaneshiro said.
Every UH-Hilo point was scored by a senior.
Danielle Kooyman collected a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, Hayley Reynolds and Chelsea Santos also scored 10 points and McKenzie Mangino added nine points and eight rebounds.
Jordan Kealoha, didn’t make a field goal but she scored six points and finished with a crisp eight assists and zero turnovers.
“They are going to be hard to replace,” Kaneshiro said.
He meant that in terms of quality and quantity.
“They’ve had some wins that are as good as we’ve had in my five years,” Kaneshiro said. “Very outgoing personalities. The interact well with anybody they come in contact with, whether it be community service, clinics, officiating, Special Olympics. A very well-rounded group.”
The Vulcans (10-14) finished with a modest two-game winning streak and were eighth in the Pacific West Conference at 9-11. That left them three games behind BYU-Hawaii, which grabbed the final berth at the league tournament. Dominican (13-13, 10-10) was seventh.
UH-Hilo made the first two PacWest playoff and is now staring at its second consecutive losing season.
“Ups and downs,” Kaneshiro said. “They really wanted to go back to the playoffs. We had some tough losses where games were really tight. Things just didn’t go our way.”
They did in the finale.
After leading by as many as 13 in the second half, the Penguins cut the lead two with 4:21 remaining.
But Rode made a 3-pointer, Williams hit a pair of free throws and the Vulcans went on a 16-5 run, capped by Santos’ 3-pointer.
“Tonight we played some of our best basketball of the year,” Kaneshiro said.
It goes without saying the Vulcans are about to undergo a face-lift. The seniors started each game this season.
Sophomore point guard Alexa Jacobs played in all 24 games and averaged 6.3 points per game, but no other returning player averaged more than 1.1 per game.
That figures to make Kaneshiro a busy man ahead of signing day April 15.
“We’re looking to lock down some people and we’ve been working all year,” Kaneshiro said. “Student-athletes we think are going to help us and are a good fit.”
