Rainbow Wahine basketball bound for WNIT after title defeat
The wild ride of the 2018-19 Hawaii women’s basketball team isn’t over just yet.
Shortly after its 58-50 loss to top-seeded UC Davis in the Big West championship game, UH announced that the Rainbow Wahine will make their 10th all-time appearance in the WNIT. With regular-season champion Davis taking the Big West tournament’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, that freed up the Wahine, as the No. 2 seed, for inclusion in the 64-team WNIT.
UH last participated in the WNIT in 2015, the third of three straight years in it. This is the fourth WNIT under seventh-year coach Laura Beeman.
Saturday’s loss was undoubtedly a tough pill to swallow. UH, the only team to defeat Davis in the Big West regular season, came out motivated, jumping out to a 22-10 lead after a quarter. The Wahine could seemingly do no wrong. Point guard Tia Kanoa was in total floor general mode, getting to exactly the spots on the floor she could do the most damage with a pass or a shot.
It was a 14-point game at halftime, and it grew to as many as 17 points early in the third.
But that’s when Davis seemed to wake up. They chip, chip, chipped away and the margin was just six points going to the fourth. Leah Salanoa hit a big-time 3 to start the fourth, pushing it back to nine, but little did everyone know that would be UH’s only field goal of the final period. There weren’t many clean looks after that, and the ones that were, UH couldn’t knock down.
Sophia Song finally put the Aggies ahead with a 3 with 4:18 left.
Big West player of the year Morgan Bertsch, who was off at the start, kept on coming and finished with 24 points on 23 shots.
They did it 🏆
Aggies, the championship belongs to you.@UCDavisWBB | 🐴 pic.twitter.com/6kV3amtMzB
— #BigWestWBB (@BigWestWBB) March 17, 2019
In the postgame handshake line, UH coach Laura Beeman hugged her Davis counterpart Jennifer Gross, who’d won the regular season the last couple years but had never broken through for the NCAAs until Saturday. It was UH that defeated Davis soundly in the 2016 championship game when Bertsch was a freshman.
The Wahine will remain on the mainland, for now, and could stay there to await Monday’s WNIT selection show for their destination.
It was a remarkable accomplishment for the Wahine just to get to the title game after enduring such a tumultuous season. Here were Beeman and Kanoa at the interview podium after the title defeat.
Hear from head coach Laura Beeman and PG Tia Kanoa after the @WahineBBall lost to UC Davis in the Big West championship game: pic.twitter.com/kr4RKgVWMd
— Ren Clayton (@Ren_Clayton) March 17, 2019
Now Beeman, Kanoa and company have one more game to play. Given how many ups and downs there have been in 2018-19, maybe it’s only fitting that they have one more chance to end on a high note.
The Rainbow Wahine fall to UC Davis 58-50 in the #BWT championship
Leah Salanoa (14pts, reb, 3ast)
Tia Kanoa (15pts, 2reb, 2ast)🌈| #GoBows pic.twitter.com/uPH3irQP0y
— #BigWestWBB (@BigWestWBB) March 17, 2019
So that’s how it works.
I was trying to figure how you can get in with a sub-.500 record.
I would have been a little less tense if I knew there was a consolation prize already locked up.
I hope people don’t see this team as chokers; they really played well down the stretch. Not ugly basketball, but good basketball. There just was no answer for Morgan Bertsch in the second half.
Agree, they played outstanding after losing Woodfolk, but they choked in the title game which was theirs. Maybe it’s better not to know there is a consolation prize waiting.
Did the team know?
I guess they would. But I had no idea. I was stuck on the idea that you needed a .500 or better record. I’m glad Hawaii is playing on. But if I was on the rules committee, I would go to the next available team with a .500 or better record. That 15-16 includes a win over DII competition. So, really, according to the computer, they’re actually 14-16.
Does one of the players look out of shape to you? That would account for her disappointing season.
3 I was under the same impression that they were done because they would be under 500, but i saw on another post someone mention that they get to go to the WNIT as runner up. I’m glad the ladies get to play at least one more game. They have to work on shooting,rebounding more., and less turnovers.