Tribune-Herald
Tribune-Herald
The effort was fine, the mistakes need fixing.
Those were some of coach David Kaneshiro’s major takeaways Wednesday night from the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s 70-35 women’s basketball exhibition loss to Hawaii at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
“At this time of year, the big focus is on our self,” Kaneshiro said. “I know this gives our coaching staff a lot to work on. At certain times, we didn’t execute.”
The Vulcans don’t open the regular season until Nov. 18 at home against Alaska-Fairbanks.
The matchup of Division I and II teams went largely as expected: UHH struggled to score and was outrebounded 38-24 by the taller Rainbow Wahine, and its 28 turnovers led to 32 points for the opposition.
But Kaneshiro said the numbers were mostly the results of unforced errors.
“It had nothing to do with (UH) being bigger and faster and a Division I team,” Kaneshiro said. “We never got frustrated, but there are a whole lot of things we can do to become more consistent.”
Reserve Diane Moore led four Rainbow Wahine in double digits with 18 points, and Shawna-Lei Kuehu added 14. UH made 16 of 25 in the second half to finish at 54 percent.
Whitney Edens and Jordan Kealoha, a pair of junior college transfers, each scored seven points in their Vulcans debuts. Kamie Imai, last season’s leading scorer, only played 19 minutes and scored six points for UHH, which shot 28.6 percent.
The Rainbow Wahine led 30-16 at the half and the lead was 17 with just under 8 minutes left before UHH was outscored 21-3 the rest of the way.
UH opens its season Nov. 9 at Arizona State.