Rainbow Wahine deliver win over UCSB in ‘Beeman’s Big Bash’

Daejah Phillips scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half and reached 1,000 career points as the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team defeated UC Santa Barbara 68-64 on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

A crowd of 5,068 packed the arena for “Beeman’s Big Bash,” the largest crowd in UH head coach Laura Beeman’s tenure, which began in 2011.

Phillips entered the game with 990 career points and became the 24th Rainbow Wahine player to hit the 1,000-point milestone as Hawaii improved to 16-9 overall and a Big West-best 12-3 in conference play.

Lily Wahinekapu added 20 points, including 10 straight in a 12-5 run to begin the fourth quarter that helped UH pull away, and Imani Perez had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Alexis Whitfield had 21 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Gauchos (16-9, 105), who got within 66-64 with 29 seconds remaining. Meilani McBee was fouled and hit both free throws for Hawaii, and UCSB could not get another shot to drop.

Earlier Sunday in Santa Barbara, Calif., the UH men’s basketball team had its three-game winning streak end with a 77-71 loss to UC Santa Barbara.

The Rainbow Warriors (15-12, 7-8) led by 11 points late in the first half and still led 44-36 after Kody Williams’ layup with 13:48 left in the game. The Gauchos (14-11, 7-8) then went on a 12-2 run to take its first lead since the first few minutes of the game, with 11:41 remaining.

It remained close, with the teams tied at 69 with under two minutes left. The Gauchos’

Ajay Mitchell converted a three-point play with 1:24 to go and later added on another jumper as UCSB pulled away late.

Tom Beattie had 15 points and Justin McKoy and Bernardo da Silva each scored 14 for UH, which shot 50 percent (24 of 48) from the field.

Mitchell finished with 23 points to lead UCSB. Josh Pierre-Louis scored 16, Matija Belic had 11 and Yohan Traore 10.

UH next plays Long Beach State on Saturday, the men at home and the women on the road.