A team that finally learned how to close had one last hurdle between it and its ultimate goal.
With remarkable late-game composure, Hawaii rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to defeat UC Santa Barbara, 61-59, for its second straight Big West women’s basketball tournament championship and earn another NCAA Tournament appearance at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada, on Saturday.
The Rainbow Wahine were sluggish out of the gate appeared sunk for much of the game but point guard Lily Wahinekapu, forward Daejah Phillips and freshman center Imani Perez rallied the team with a series of clutch baskets. Third-seeded UH outscored UCSB 22-8 in the final eight minutes, with tournament MVP Phillips, a native of nearby Las Vegas, scoring the go-ahead three-point play on a screen slip and give-and-go from Perez with 3.4 seconds left.
“Our last game at home (senior night against UCSB, a 10-point win), that’s when I knew we’re winning this thing,” Phillips said.
UCSB, which took its last lead on Alexis Tucker’s free throws with 6.4 seconds left, had a final chance, but Anya Choice had no option on the Gauchos’ inbounds play but to fire a long 3 that clanked off the back iron.
Phillips and Wahinekapu, the Cal State Fullerton transfer from Kaneohe who came home last summer to play with her little sister, led the team with 19 points apiece as the Wahine’s representatives on the all-tournament team.
“Just playing in front of my family and friends and my whole community from Iolani to middle school and elementary, and now growing a family at UH, it means so much,” said Wahinekapu, who scored 11 points in the fourth quarter on 4-for-5 shooting in the period. “I wouldn’t have done it without them.”
The Wahine now have three Big West tournament titles in 11 years under coach Laura Beeman, who cut down the last piece of the net from one of the arena’s baskets. It was the first time in program history it hoisted back-to-back trophies in a tourney setting.
UH (18-14) will make its eighth all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, and second straight. It will learn its destination during the NCAA Selection Show at 2 p.m. Hawaii time on Sunday.
After losing 2022 Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell, the Wahine turned to a more egalitarian system but didn’t exactly roar out of the gates. It started the season 1-7 and struggled to close games, a recurring theme — at least, until the last couple weeks, when they improved their seeding to third by winning seven of their last nine BWC regular-season games.
They followed that up by winning three games in three days. That included a do-or-die 3-point shot from Meilani McBee in Thursday’s quarterfinal against Cal State Fullerton to extend that game to a second overtime.
The two losses over the home stretch of the season? One-possession games against Long Beach State and UC Irvine on last-second inbounds plays. They stung in the moment, but helped the team focus up for the stretch drive, Beeman said, including against LBSU in Friday's semifinals.
“We said we have to grow up and finish games. We have to close games,” Beeman said. “That’s the only thing that’s stopping us from being a champion.
“We did not lose a close game after that game (at Irvine on Feb. 25), because of these guys’ commitment to getting better, locking in and focusing. We’re sitting here today because of it.”
UH is still the only Big West women's program that knows what it's like to hoist a trophy at the two-year-old Dollar Loan Center.
In part because of its proximity to Hawaii-friendly Las Vegas, UH enjoyed a tournament-long crowd advantage there, including the UH band and cheerleaders.
“That was a huge advantage for us that we leaned into, at the end of the game especially,” said center Kallin Spiller, who made it 2-for-2 in tournament titles after joining UH as a graduate student.
Over the course of the 2022-23 campaign, UH lost four players to season-ending injuries, including three in the regular playing rotation: Olivia Davies, Jovi Lefotu, Jacque David and Avery Watkins.
Those four flew up to Las Vegas overnight as a surprise from Beeman to the team, proving a major morale boost to begin Saturday.
That didn’t last.
UCSB (21-12), the fifth seed seeking its first tournament championship since 2012, connected on three of its first five 3s for a 22-15 lead after a quarter, with its top guard Tucker scoring 10 of her game-high 21 points in the period.
Phillips hit a pair of early 3s but sat for the final 15 minutes of the first half with her second foul. Wahinekapu also sat for stretches of the half, during which time the Gauchos pushed the issue further, growing their lead to 38-23 at halftime, their largest advantage in the game.
UH gave itself a chance for the comeback by holding UCSB without a field goal for the final 6:15 of the third quarter, aided by All-Big West center Ila Lane (12 points, six rebounds) picking up her third foul and taking a seat.
Gauchos coach Bonnie Henrickson rued her team's slower pace in the second half that required several forced shots near the end of the shot clock. Ball pressure from UH contributed to that.
The killer was UH's 6-for-8 shooting on 3s in the fourth quarter, she said.
"They didn’t run plays; they made plays," Henrickson said of UH. "We broke down and made mistakes. ... All of a sudden the rim got really big. Guys that don’t shoot it well knocked down shots because they’re confident."
Phillips and Wahinekapu hit consecutive 3s to cut a 10-point lead to four with 6:32 left.
Lane hit three more baskets over the next three minutes, but Wahinekapu and Perez coolly drained 3-pointers and Wahinekapu snuck in for a layup for UH’s first lead, 58-57, since the game’s opening minutes.
After Tucker put UCSB ahead for the last time, UH took two timeouts with Phillips as the inbounder to set up its game-winning play. After feeding it to Perez at the left elbow, Phillips darted past her and rubbed off her defender, caught a lob from Perez and finished through light contact from help defender Alexis Whitfield to cap a 6-for-8 shooting day.
The celebration came soon after.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.