The Hawaii women’s basketball team leaned on its outside shooting to give itself a chance at an upset at Oregon State in the teams’ 2022-23 season opener on Monday night.
The defending Big West champions fell behind by double digits in the second half, but thanks to late baskets from Lily Wahinekapu, Kelsie Imai and Olivia Davies, UH rallied to tie it up against the Pac-12 team in Gill Coliseum in the waning moments — only to feel the sting of an official’s whistle on a loose ball with 0.4 seconds left in a 61-60 loss in Corvallis, Ore.
“It’s tough,” UH coach Laura Beeman told Spectrum News in a postgame phone interview. “I understand the letter of the law. Personally, I feel like that’s a no-call 45 feet from the basket. But I’m not an official. I would’ve liked to have seen the kids finish it in overtime.”
After a key offensive rebound from Daejah Phillips and a Davies second-chance basket from the elbow knotted it at 60 with 24.7 seconds left, OSU called timeout to go for the win.
Guard Talia Von Oelhoffen held the ball at the top of the key and drove for a right-handed layup as time ticked down, but came up short off the window. The resulting rebound caromed to the far sideline as players from both teams scrambled and dove for it. Just as time expired, one official raised his fist for a foul while another signaled overtime.
A lengthy review ensued and the three officials upheld the holding call on Phillips with 0.4 seconds left, sending Noelle Mannon to the line because UH was in the five-foul penalty for the quarter.
OSU had struggled all game with its foul shooting and Mannen missed the first off the back iron, but she was all net on the second for the go-ahead point.
UH called timeout to advance the ball and center Kallin Spiller inbounded to Davies, who got off a quick catch-and-shoot on a deep 3, but she was well short.
Wahinekapu, the Iolani School product who won Big West Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton last season, scored 12 points on 3-for-9 shooting (3-6 3-pointers) in her Wahine debut. Her younger sister Jovi Lefotu, the 2021-22 Hawaii high school player of the year at Iolani, had five points and four rebounds in her first official college game.
Phillips scored 12 with five rebounds and five assists. Spiller had nine points and five rebounds.
It was UH's first official game since losing Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell, its WNBA-drafted six-year sharpshooter, to cap an NCAA tournament appearance and 20-10 season in 2021-22.
Yet UH still turned to the outside shot repeatedly Monday, and from nearly every player on the floor, against the taller Beavers, who featured a 6-foot-9 center in Jelena Mitrovic. More than half of UH’s attempts, 32 out of 57 shots, were 3s.
UH hit 12 of them (37.5%), including a 5-for-5 opening salvo to take a 20-7 lead. Nine of UH’s first 12 baskets were triples.
“I think we have a team that’s capable of hitting 3s, and we’re going to have to hit 3s because teams are going to sit in a zone because of how we can get in the paint, how we can play-make and our post play,” Beeman said.
OSU, 17-14 a season ago (6-9 Pac-12) did damage off the dribble and with its cutting and passing, finishing with 18 assists on its 23 field goals. It caught up at 30-all at halftime and surged ahead by 10 in the third quarter.
But Phillips, the third-year forward from Las Vegas, scored in transition then hit a shot at the elbow to make it a four-point game going into the fourth.
UH still had to rally from eight down, with eight minutes to play.
“I’m super proud of this team for their resiliency. They could’ve folded," Beeman said. "That was like the third punch that Oregon State threw at us."
The 11th-year coach went with a large starting lineup of Wahinekapu, guard Ashley Thoms and Phillips and Spiller in the frontcourt with center Nnenna Orji, but down the stretch she went with a three-local-guard lineup of Wahinekapu and Lefotu, plus Hawaii Island native Kelsie Imai, and Phillips and Spiller up front.
Imai hit consecutive baskets, and Wahinekapu and Lefotu hit 3s in succession during an 11-0 run for a 57-54 Wahine lead. UH led for the last time on Wahinekapu’s steal and free throw with 1:32 left.
"These girls did not stop playing," Beeman said. "I thought Daejah Phillips’ rebounding at the end of the game was phenomenal. We had some kids hit big shots, make some really good plays defensively. I’m sure when I watch the film there’s going to be some ‘oh boy, holy crap,’ moments, good and bad. But I’m coming out of this with is the silver lining that at least this team (did) fight. I’m just really disappointed the game ended the way it did.”
Freshman 6-foot-4 post Imani Perez played 10 scoreless minutes off the bench in her UH debut.
AJ Marotte scored 16 to lead OSU and Von Oelhoffen added 14.
It was the fourth straight Rainbow Wahine loss in mainland season-openers. The last time UH won its season opener on the continent was 2015 at Grand Canyon.
UH has a day to prepare for its Wednesday battle at Portland (1-0), an up-tempo team that defeated the Wahine 91-77 in Honolulu last year en route to a 20-11 record. Tipoff is 3 p.m. Hawaii time.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.