HONOLULU — Lily Lefotu Wahinekapu made strong connections with coaches and teammates in a prolific first year of college basketball at Cal State Fullerton. But even as she led her team in a number of categories and earned Big West Freshman of the Year, there remained a bond that superseded all of that.

A handful of days after entering the NCAA transfer portal, the 5-foot-7 guard signed with Big West rival and defending conference champion Hawaii with the intent of playing alongside her younger sister, Jovi Wahinekapu Lefotu, in the coming years.

UH announced the signing on Tuesday. Lefotu, an early signee with the Rainbow Wahine last year, will be a true freshman in the 2022-23 season and Wahinekapu a sophomore. The pair won two state titles together at Iolani School.

“Right now I’m just very grateful that I get the opportunity to come back home and play in front of my family and friends, and also to play with my sister,” Wahinekapu told Spectrum News in a phone interview. “Not a lot of people can say they get to play with their siblings at the next level. I feel like it’s just an opportunity that I couldn’t give up, because I feel like my sister’s relationship is so close and I value our relationship a lot.”

The two are full siblings; their surnames are transposed to represent both sides of the family. They played together in pickup ball as recently as this spring break when Wahinekapu came home and it only served to reinforce their innate connection, she said. She noted her little sister has outgrown her by two inches to 5-9, and that the time apart had served them both well for their leadership abilities.

“Me and her can still read each other and we’re looking for each other on the court,” said Wahinekapu. “That’s something I value a lot because you can’t get that anywhere else. It’s just a natural chemistry that me and her have.”

Lefotu, as Iolani’s new team leader coming out of a season lost to the pandemic, went on to win her third high school state championship in February to go with the 2019 and 2020 titles playing alongside her older sister.

Both are capable of playing the point or off the ball. UH also has experienced ball-handlers coming back in third-year sophomore Kelsie Imai, fourth-year sophomore Olivia Davies and fourth-year junior Ashley Thoms.

Wahinekapu was a handful in putting up 14.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game as a featured player in the Titans’ offense. She shot 40% from the field as a volume shooter at multiple levels, and was even better when she drew contact, converting 79.3% at the foul line. She was fifth in the BWC in scoring.

“I think we’ll have the best backcourt in the Big West, hands down,” coach Laura Beeman told Spectrum News. “(Lily) is coming in as freshman of the year. She was a handful at Fullerton; you had to run schemes to get the ball out of her hands. Kelsie Imai coming back with just her determination, her experience winning a championship, knowing our system. And then you’ve got Jovi that’s just an amazing, athletic (player), knows the game, obviously is going to have good chemistry with her sister.

“So just between the three of them, we will have no issues at our point guard position if everyone competes, if everyone buys into what we’re trying to do, and if everyone stays healthy.”

However, Beeman said that the team is parting ways with three-year Wahine point guard Nae Nae Calhoun, who had battled through homesickness to be a part-time starter and vital part of UH’s championship run in 2021-22.

Beeman emphasized that the addition of Wahinekapu and the loss of Calhoun were unrelated events and that she wished Calhoun, of Riverside, Calif., well with the rest of her career. Center Maeve Donnelly, who was injured for the second half of the season, is also in the portal, Beeman said, but she believes the rest of the title team will stick together aside from Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell, who was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA Draft third round on Monday.

The loss of Wahinekapu was a disappointing turn for the Titans, who have strong Hawaii ties on their coaching staff and will now face their former player at least two times a year for the remainder of her Wahine career.

Just a few weeks ago, Fullerton head coach Jeff Harada spoke glowingly of what the future would hold with Wahinekapu after she poured in 26 points in a quarterfinal loss to UC Irvine in the Big West tournament to cap an 11-18 season.

Beeman said she empathized, having been on the other side of losing players within the Big West since the relaxing of the NCAA’s Division I transfer rules. Players can now play immediately after going from one D-I school to another, including within the same conference.

“I called Jeff and said, ‘out of respect for you and professional courtesy, I wanted to let you know we do have intentions of (announcing) we’ve signed Lily. And wanted to let you know before the release comes out that she will be playing for us next year,’” Beeman said.

“(He had) nothing but good things to say about Lily, (and) understands homesickness is homesickness. I expressed to him that I have a higher rate of homesickness than he does, and he understood. He handled it very, very well. Nothing but respect for him and his program.”

Wahinekapu said that after the 2021-22 season, she realized that she was with a strong group of players in Fullerton but that “home was where my heart was” and wished her former teammates and coaches good luck in the upcoming season.

“It’s just going to be a competitive game,” she said of what meetings with CSUF will be like. “But at the same time, there’s still going to be love there after.”

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.