HONOLULU — With an overtime win on the road over defending conference champion Hawaii, UC Irvine proved that it is indeed the team to beat in Big West women’s basketball this season.
For the moment, at least, allowed Rainbow Wahine coach Laura Beeman.
“They’re the best team in the conference. And they’re playing like that,” Beeman said. “Who’s going to be the best team March 11? Different story. That’s what our goal is. But right now, they’re the best team in the conference.”
The Anteaters overcame the loss of a severely injured teammate in the game’s opening minutes and prevailed 71-67 in front of 610 people after the Wahine scrapped from 14 points down in the third quarter to send the game to an extra period.
Point guard Lily Wahinekapu got fouled on a putback attempt down two with 0.6 seconds left in regulation to cap her team’s frantic comeback against UCI (15-3, 7-0 Big West), which lost all three meetings to UH (6-10, 4-3) last season — including the Big West championship game at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.
But after Wahinekapu coolly sank both foul shots, the ‘Eaters, too, kept a level head and captured their ninth straight win, and improved to 7-2 on the road in the full season.
That was no small feat with guard Olivia Williams, the team’s third-leading scorer, going down with a gruesome knee injury midway through the first quarter. The game was stopped for 10 minutes as Williams was attended to by trainers and eventually helped off the floor; her left leg in an air cast.
Williams was taken out of the arena via wheelchair to a hospital at halftime.
UCI center Nevaeh Parkinson described the moment Williams went down and cried out as “very emotional.”
“Everybody just kept their composure and kept fighting,” said Parkinson, a transfer to UCI from New Mexico last offseason who scored 11 points off the bench Thursday. “I think that’s the best thing about our team, that we have so much fight in us, that no matter how much times you knock us down we get back up.”
UCI scored the first six points of OT on three straight baskets by Amelia Scharpf, Parkinson and Diaba Konate. When UH rallied one more time to score four in a row, guard Nikki Tom grabbed a critical offensive board and the role player Scharpf nailed a cold-blooded 3-pointer from straightaway.
UH was forced to take fouls and UCI was clutch at the line, sinking six of eight in the final 24 seconds with backup post Nyagoa Gony hitting three of four.
Once the win was secured, UCI coach Tamara Inoue hustled out of the arena right after the game to meet up with Williams at a hospital.
Forward Hunter Hernandez led UCI with 19 points on 7-for-20 shooting.
Beeman credited her team for battling back, if a little late. UH pressed UCI fullcourt behind guards Wahinekapu, Jovi Lefotu and Kelsie Imai. Imai had a pinpoint fast-break bounce pass to Nnenna Orji (season-high 12 points) on a fast break to help get the comeback started.
Forward Daejah Phillips came off the bench to score all of her 13 points from the fourth quarter and on.
“I went into big dog mode,” Phillips said with a smile. “I knew we needed to gain energy and get going. … They didn’t know what to do with Lily and Jovi, and then once they stopped (them), I thought it was my turn to try and get buckets or find my open team(mates).”
UH, which sits in fifth, hosts last-place UC Riverside (4-14, 2-6 on Saturday).
UH announced before the game that fourth-year sophomore guard Olivia Davies will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury. Davies, who missed the last four games, was instrumental in helping UH to its BWC title last season. She missed her entire true freshman season with a similar injury.
Beeman said the team would support Davies in her recovery and as she figured out her next career steps.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.