HONOLULU — There were plenty of areas highlighted for needed improvement for the Hawaii women’s basketball team after its preseason exhibition against Hawaii Pacific on Tuesday night.
The play of true freshman Jovi Lefotu was not one of them in the Rainbow Wahine’s 73-49 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The reigning state player of the year out of Iolani School was the player of the game as she displayed nearly perfect shooting on the impressive night – a 6-for-7 effort on a series of driving layups and 6-for-6 accuracy at the free-throw line. Lefotu, a 5-foot-8 guard, scored 20 points in 17 minutes off the bench against the Sharks of the Division II PacWest Conference.
“Excited to be playing in front of my hometown,” Lefotu said afterward with a laugh.
The Kaneohe native had more nerves at the postgame podium than she did on the court playing in front of two dozen friends and family members among the crowd of 593.
“Seeing what HPU had and reading what they were giving us, I think that really helped me coming off the bench,” Lefotu said. “Knowing what they were doing on defense I think really gave me that spark.”
Helping ease her into a college uniform was the presence of her older sister Lily Wahinekapu, her teammate for the first time since they were at Iolani three years ago.
Wahinekapu, the reigning Big West Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton making her own unofficial UH debut after transferring home this summer, started at point guard and supplied six points, five rebounds, three assists and one turnover.
The two didn’t share the court for long, but it was enough.
“I’m super, super very proud of my sister,” Wahinekapu said. “I (knew) what she was capable of. When she subbed me out, I just told her, ‘this is your game, you got it.’ She can attack and she has a lot of skills and talent that she can use, and she used it.”
Their real debuts will come Monday when defending Big West champion UH opens the 2022-23 season at Oregon State of the Pac-12.
UH lost Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell after a record-setting super senior season, but has most of its other pieces back from its title team. That, and additions in the siblings and freshman posts like Imani Perez and Avery Watkins, gives 11th-year coach Laura Beeman plenty of options in how to allocate minutes.
Top returning scorer Daejah Phillips scored 13 points and senior center Kallin Spiller supplied eight. Six other players scored a bucket.
“Lot of depth, which is challenging at times because you want to get people on the court,” Beeman said. “But it’s nice because when people aren’t working (hard), you have the number next (to them) stepping up.”
Transition defense, boxing out on rebounds, closing out on shooters, and free-throw shooting were named as emphases.
UH also did not shoot well from beyond the arc. It was 4-for-25, 16%, an area it clearly missed the sharpshooting Atwell.
HPU went up early, 7-6, after UH put in its second unit and the Sharks extended the lead to as many as seven points with their 3-point shooting.
But Lefotu scored eight points in the last three minutes of the quarter to help UH reclaim a 19-18 advantage going into the second period.
UH showed some effective fullcourt ball pressure and dominated that quarter, 23-4, to lead 42-22 at halftime. It was similarly effective in the third period but showed some let-down in the fourth, when the Wahine were outscored 18-9.
Lefotu showed herself to be a capable ball-handler who could finish with either hand. Late in the third quarter, she stole the ball from the Sharks at the top of the key, drove the other way and stuck a twisting layup around a defender.
Lefotu did not miss a shot until she was off on a layup with 3:33 remaining. Having established herself as a threat on the drive, she showed some subsequent playmaking when she dumped it off to the 6-foot-4 Perez for a layup in the final minute of the game.
The only other time she played a game in the Stan Sheriff Center was the state championship game of her freshman season.
Sharks starting guard Haley Masaki, who scored nine points Tuesday, played for Kamehameha in that game, a 52-49 Iolani win when Kalina Obrey’s desperation 3 to tie was ruled to have come a split-second after the buzzer.
Obrey, now also an HPU Shark, did not see action Tuesday for first-year coach Katie Novak. Center Abby Spurgin led the Sharks with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
HPU, a program accustomed to contending in the PacWest, has been in the midst of a rebuild since it suspended and subsequently dismissed coach Reid Takatsuka in controversial fashion in the 2021-22 season.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.