HONOLULU — It was too much of a good thing for the Hawaii women’s basketball team.
A huge second-quarter run had UH coach Laura Beeman convinced she could empty her bench near the end of the first half to give her reserves some experience while leading UC San Diego by 18 points at home.
Instead, the Tritons capitalized on the moment and made UH pay with a 60-57 comeback victory in front of 494 (1,265 tickets issued) on Thursday night.
Beeman immediately pointed the finger at herself in the post-game for playing 14 Rainbow Wahine before the half.
“Shouldn’t have done it,” she said with a shake of the head. “I thought we had enough (of a) lead and enough experience that that wouldn’t have affected us, but I think it did. We didn’t score; they scored six points, brought us from 18 to 12 (at halftime), and I think it killed our mojo a little bit. So, we just have to get better, on both sides of the ball.”
UH (4-8, 2-1 Big West) had to scramble down five with under 30 seconds left. Forward Jacque David hit a 3 to make it a two-point game with 17 seconds to go and UH took fouls on UCSD’s Emily Cangelosi, who obliged by going 1-for-4 at the line. David had two more looks at 3s in the final seconds, including from the left corner at the buzzer, but she was off the mark.
UH was outscored by 10 in the third quarter and five in the fourth as it took its first league loss of the season to a transitioning Division I team that’s been a tough matchup for the Wahine in their short history as conference foes.
In UH’s 13-3 Big West Conference regular-season championship season of 2021-22, UCSD accounted for two of the three losses. Lithe guard Julia Macabuhay stuck the game-winner off the glass with 1.6 seconds left at the Stan Sheriff Center to cap a 20-point night.
This time, Macabuhay, a 5-foot-6, fifth-year senior, scored all of her 11 points in the fourth quarter to cap off the comeback for UCSD (5-8, 2-1) after sitting for most of the first half with foul trouble.
“This atmosphere in here is great. I think just the energy this audience brings, we thrive off of that,” said Macabuhay, who hit her last four shots after an 0-for-5 start. “So, it’s a fun place to play.”
Sydnee Brown, whom Beeman called a Big West first-team player, scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the Tritons’ guard-heavy lineup.
“They got our number. They’re better than us,” Beeman said. “We have to figure that out before we see them one more time in conference. … They’re very, very confident against us, and they play consistent.”
Forward Daejah Phillips led UH with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting while David added 14.
“We needed a score, we needed somebody to get us on the board,” said Phillips, who scored nine in the fourth. “And so my team was kind of looking at me like, ‘OK let’s go,’ so I needed to go out and get a bucket for my team and get them starting again.”
After trailing 12-11 going into the second quarter, UH went on a 17-0 run to go up by 18. But the margin was narrowed to 32-20 going into halftime as the UH reserves struggled to find a rhythm.
UH faces Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m. Saturday. It will be a reunion between Titans coach Jeff Harada, a Hawaii native, and UH point guard Lily Wahinekapu, who was the Big West Freshman of the Year playing for Harada last season. The Kaneohe native transferred home in the offseason to play with her younger sister, freshman Jovi Lefotu.
Wahinekapu, who was not available for interview leading up to this week’s games, had seven points, three assists and four turnovers on Thursday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.