The Hawaii women’s basketball team was dealt a major blow to its roster, but showed no ill effects on the basketball court Thursday night.
Following an announcement made 30 minutes before tipoff that reigning All-Big West guard Daejah Phillips is no longer an active member of the Rainbow Wahine basketball program, Hawaii went out and took care of business in a 61-47 win over UC Riverside.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 389 saw a consistently intense effort from the Rainbow Wahine, who won their second in a row to get back to .500 in Big West play at 2-2 and 8-6 overall.
Brooklyn Rewers continued her recent hot streak with 15 points and five rebounds off the bench and MeiLani McBee tied a season high with four 3-pointers and added 14 points for Hawaii, which outscored the Highlanders 40-19 in the second and third quarters.
“I thought it was a great game for us tonight,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “Obviously we needed to have somebody step up in different areas and I thought we did. Tonight was the best rebounding game we’ve had all season.”
The Rainbow Wahine outrebounded the Highlanders 40-28 and snagged 13 on the offensive glass.
Reserve guard Mia ‘Uhila led the team with nine rebounds.
Senior point guard Lily Wahinekapu added 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals and played 33 minutes in her fifth straight game of at least 30 minutes.
That will likely have to continue with Phillips out and Kelsie Imai missing her fifth straight game since getting injured in the previous home game UH played 25 days ago against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Jovi Lefotu added seven points and five rebounds off the bench in 19 quality minutes in her second game back from missing time with an injury.
“We need her minutes,” Beeman said. “What Jovi brings to our offense is very different than any guard than we have. She’s a bigger guard. She’s got great court vision. She delivers the ball where it needed to be delivered.”
That role will be critical as the team moves forward without Phillips, who is the reigning Big West Sixth Player of the Year and a first-team, all-conference selection.
Phillips had started eight of the 10 games she played in and was averaging 9.4 points and 3.2 rebounds.
She is 10th on the school’s career scoring list with 1,214 points.
“Basketball is crazy. You’re going to have change of lineups because of sickness and situation all of the time. What we try to do is put these guys in the best position we can.We recruit in a way that we want to bring in people who, if their number is called, can step up and handle it.”
Hawaii shot 40.4% (21-for-52) from the field and 45% (9-for-20) from 3. Kaylani Polk had 11 points to lead the Highlanders (7-8, 3-2).
The start of the game didn’t go any better for UH, which was issued an administrative technical foul for an issue related to the clock.
The Rainbow Wahine trailed after the made free throw before the game even tipped and then were down 15-10 after the first quarter as the Highlanders started 3-for-3 from 3-point range.
Hawaii quickly turned the game around to open the second quarter as Ritorya Tamilo scored on an assist from Wahinekapu and then Wahinekapu found Jade Peacock in transition for a 3 to even the score at 15-all.
A Wahinekapu 3 capped an 8-0 run and prompted UC Riverside to call a timeout.
Hawaii went on to outscore the Highlanders 22-8 in the second quarter to take a 32-23 lead at halftime, with Rewers leading the way offensively with 10 points.
UH extended the lead to 16 points at 50-34 at the end of the third quarter with a spirited effort led by Wahinekapu.
Hawaii dominated on the glass 14-6 and gave up just one offensive rebound while holding the Highlanders to 0-for-6 shooting from the 3-point line.
“I think our team carries energy from defense to offense and I think the emphasis of rebounding was high in this game,” Rewers said. “I think getting that momentum on that end allowed us to carry it over on offense and we were moving the ball around really well.”
McBee hit her fourth 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter to push the lead to 19 and UC Riverside never got closer than the final margin the rest of the way.
Hawaii will return to the home court on Saturday against Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m.
