The most painful part of Thursday’s loss at UC Santa Barbara might not have been the blown 20-point lead for the Hawaii women’s basketball team.

With just nine seconds remaining in UH’s 72-69 fall-from-ahead defeat at the hands of the Gauchos, freshman guard Jovi Lefotu went down with what appeared to be a severe knee injury and was carried off the floor.

There was no immediate word after the game at the Thunderdome about the Iolani alumna’s status. Lefotu matched her season high of 29 minutes played and with seven points was one shy of equaling her scoring high.

Coach Laura Beeman issued a statement through UH after the loss but did not provide a comment on Lefotu’s status.

“We played hard and played some of the best offense we have played all year,” she said. “Give credit to UCSB for not giving up. (Alexis) Tucker got hot and we didn’t have a defensive answer for her. We got tight and went cold. Proud of the girls for handling all the adversity.”

Lefotu, the Hawaii state player of the year as a high school senior, has gradually earned more consistent court time as she's adjusted to the speed of the Division I game. The slasher played 20-plus minutes in each of the last four games while coming off the bench, scoring six or seven points in each.

The Gauchos (14-5, 7-2 Big West) trailed UH 40-28 at halftime but went on a 22-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters. Tucker scored a game-high 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting and center Ila Lane added 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds.

UH (7-11, 5-4) led 51-31 in the third quarter, and after giving up the massive UCSB run fell behind by six, only to tie it at 67 on two 3s by Meilani McBee.

Lane scored the go-ahead points on a layup with 37 seconds left and UH went 0-for-3 with a turnover from there, not including Kelsie Imai’s basket at the buzzer.

Lefotu’s older sister, point guard Lily Wahinekapu, led UH with 13 points. McBee added 11, Jacque David had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Imai scored 10 points and Kallin Spiller nine. Season leading scorer Daejah Phillips missed her first game of the year for unspecified reasons.

UH has already lost a key player for the season with a knee injury; guard Olivia Davies was announced as out the rest of the way last week.

The Wahine wrap up their road trip at Cal State Bakersfield (5-12, 2-7) at noon Hawaii time on Saturday.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.