HENDERSON, Nev. — There was disappointment in Cal State Fullerton’s women’s basketball postgame press conference on Wednesday, but also hope.
When the Titans fell 80-68 to UC Irvine in the Big West tournament quarterfinals, more was on display than just a double-digit defeat. The future was also represented in the 5-foot-7 form of Lily Wahinekapu, the Iolani School graduate from Honolulu.
The Big West Freshman of the Year poured in 26 points, one off her season high, as the focal point of coach Jeff Harada’s offense.
Harada, when asked by Spectrum News about Wahinekapu’s season, couldn’t help but smile.
“To be honest, we expected this,” Harada, a fellow Hawaii native, said in part. “During the recruiting process, I think she can tell you that I told her, ‘you’re going to get freshman of the year. We’re going to put you in that position.’ And she took the reins and ran with that.”
The 2021 Hawaii Gatorade Player of the Year was the rare example of a true freshman coming in and starting immediately at point guard. That was not to say she didn’t experience some early growing pains. Wahinekapu, sitting next to Harada on the interview dais, thanked her coaches and teammates for putting her through her paces.
“It takes a village to raise me and a lot of people get to where I am now, and I couldn’t have done it without them,” Wahinekapu said. She was Fullerton’s first top freshman honoree in the Big West since 2007-08.
She shot 39.8% as a high-volume shooter in 2021-22 and dealt 3.7 assists per game, and was already elite at the free-throw line at nearly 80%. She was 10-for-11 in the tournament loss to Irvine.
Wahinekapu was the team’s season scoring leader at 14.7 points per game, but learning to lead a team as an overall presence through an 11-18 (5-12 Big West) season was another matter. It’s something she’s already thinking about for her sophomore year.
Senior captain Carolyn Gill pushed her in the preseason during running drills, literally holding her up when she was “dying on the court.”
“It’s things that I’m not going to forget and things that I want to do when young girls come in,” Wahinekapu said.
Nine of 11 Titans players who saw action Wednesday are slated to return for CSUF.
Big West matchups between Fullerton and Hawaii could be quite interesting in upcoming seasons. Wahinekapu’s younger sister, Jovi Wahinekapu Lefotu, has signed to play for Laura Beeman and the Rainbow Wahine. Wahinekapu Lefotu just led the Iolani Raiders to the state championship, the third of her prep career and first without her older sister on the team.
“She set the bar high for herself after this freshman season,” Harada said of his player. “And it’s not going to get any easier for her in the future. Teams are going to be targeting her and going after her, and she understands that. Now she’s trying to put the work in to … do bigger and better things.”