Hawaii women’s basketball: Rainbow Wahine get first Big West road win
The Hawaii women’s basketball team picked up its first conference road win of the season with a 65-59 decision at UC Riverside today.
Unlike in its loss at Long Beach State on Thursday, UH (9-10, 3-3 Big West) jumped out fast and led the rest of the way in beating the Highlanders (6-13, 2-3) for the second time in 10 days.
The starting backcourt of Julissa Tago (15 points) and Nae Nae Calhoun (10) did much of the heavy lifting, while the Wahine bench outscored its Highlanders counterparts 21-4.
UH led 35-23 at halftime but saw its lead trimmed to seven points going into the fourth quarter and four points with under two minutes left.
Calhoun came up with a key steal on Riverside’s top player, Jannon Otto, in the open court with 1:30 left, and wing Jadynn Alexander hit two free throws on a flagrant foul on the play. UH got the ball back, allowing it to drain more time off the clock.
Otto had 21 points and forward Marina Ewodo added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the hosts at SRC Arena.
It was the first time since 2015 that UH swept the home-and-home series from Riverside.
UH remained in the top half of the conference with six of 16 games played. Here’s how the picture looks like with Saturday’s games completed around the league: Through March 11
| Conference | Overall | |||
| W-L | Pct. | W-L | Pct. | |
| UC Davis | 12-4 | .750 | 17-12 | .586 |
| Hawaii | 9-7 | .563 | 16-14 | .533 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 9-7 | .563 | 14-15 | .483 |
| UC Irvine | 9-7 | .563 | 13-18 | .419 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 8-8 | .500 | 17-14 | .548 |
| Long Beach State | 8-8 | .500 | 13-17 | .433 |
| Cal State Northridge | 7-9 | .438 | 12-19 | .387 |
| Cal Poly | 6-10 | .375 | 11-18 | .379 |
| UC Riverside | 4-12 | .250 | 8-22 | .267 |
Brian, I think you really done yourself proud with the way you put this together. To be honest, Fullerton, of all teams, was the only one with a good non-conference record (And a winning record), is struggling. I thought that from the way things were going this 2019-20 season, this looked like one of the more promising Fullerton teams than any other Fullerton team since the BWC era. As the conference winds down, of course, there are teams looking to ride the ship back to the winning record column. Davis, only needs a win to get back to over .500, Northridge, LBSU, and Hawaii each need 2 wins to get over .500, UCSB needs 4, the rest need 8, 9, and 10 respectably. However, not all teams will be able to reach that requirement. Ultimately, it just comes down to who is wanting it more. Hopefully, against UCI, we’ll be able to get back in the game and see a winning record in the end.