RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Lily Wahinekapu and the Hawaii women’s basketball team rallied in time to stay in the hunt for a top-three seed in the Big West tournament with a come-from-behind victory at UC Riverside on Thursday night.
After UH had one of its poorer first halves of the season against the last-place team in the conference and trailed by nine at halftime, the Wahine rallied behind the sophomore point guard to prevail 60-49 at SRC Arena.
UH (13-13, 11-6 BWC) kept pace with UC Santa Barbara for third in the standings behind Long Beach State (15-2) and UC Irvine (13-2).
Wahinekapu scored 16 of her team-high 17 points after intermission, dealt three assists and had six steals. It was her 12th straight game scoring in double figures.
Wahinekapu shot 5-for-7 in the third quarter for 10 points, all on layups. She had three of her steals in the period, which resulted in some of the buckets. She was 0-for-7 in the other three quarters. UH outscored UCR 21-7 in the period to take a five-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
UH shot 2-for-15 from the field in the fourth but helped make up for it by going 11-for-12 at the line in the period. Center Kallin Spiller had a big 3-pointer to help her team separate late.
Freshman center Imani Perez supplied 11 points, six rebounds and two steals and forward Daejah Phillips scored 10 points off the bench.
UH had 15 steals as a team among 23 turnovers forced on the Highlanders (5-23, 3-15).
Guard Jordan Webster led UCR with 20 points, but no other player had more than seven.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.