By KEVIN JAKAHI ADVERTISING By KEVIN JAKAHI Tribune-Herald sports writer The University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team knew Dixie State’s Haley Holmstead and Kaylah Miller were dangerous, entering Thursday’s game averaging 22 points and 15 points, respectively. The
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
The University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team knew Dixie State’s Haley Holmstead and Kaylah Miller were dangerous, entering Thursday’s game averaging 22 points and 15 points, respectively.
The Vulcans stopped each player, at least for a half, but the Red Storm made more plays, especially when things got close, and prevailed 67-63 in a Pacific West Conference game before 207 fans at UHH gym.
In a fine display of shooting for the first 20 minutes, both teams knocked down over 50 percent of their shots from the field (Dixie State at 53 percent vs. UHH’s 52 percent), but the Red Storm led 45-39 at halftime.
Early on, Holmstead, a 5-foot-8 senior guard, fired over her shorter UHH defenders, especially 5-6 Whitney Edens, for 14 first-half points. Her teammate, Nanea Woods, added 12 points, often grabbing offensive rebounds for easy putbacks — one problem area for the Vuls, who were outrebounded 22-13.
What kept UHH close was the stellar bench play of Kamie Imai, who scored 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting. The 5-9 senior, not only rebounded and scored in transition, but also fed her post players: 5-10 McKenzie Mangino had eight points and 5-11 Hayley Reynolds had seven points in the first half.
It was a much different story in the second half.
The Vuls’ shooting fell off a cliff. They went 7 of 33 for 21 percent. The Red Storm were somehow worse: 4 of 30 for 13 percent.
UHH stumbled over its shoelaces with inaccurate aim from the free-throw line (14 of 30 for 47 percent) and 3-point shooting (1 of 12). At least, the Vuls closed the gap on the boards; Dixie State won the rebounding battle: 58-41.
The Red Storm (4-6 overall, 2-2 PacWest) didn’t toss too many bricks at the free-throw line. They made 21 of 31. And every bit helped, because somehow, the visitors won, despite getting outscored 24-22 in the final 20 minutes, with UHH getting within a point twice.
Imai concluded with 15 points on 7 of 18 shooting while Mangino and Reynolds had 11 points each for the Vulcans (3-6, 2-3). Everyone else contributed very little or next to nothing — as far as offensive assistance.
Early in the second half, the Vulcans had a nice 9-0 scoring run to chop the Red Storm’s lead to 49-48 with under 13 minutes remaining. But the home team forgot to play perimeter defense on Miller, who buried three 3-pointers to stretch the gap to 58-49 with 9:07 left.
Miller finished right on the nose with 15 points, including 12 points in the second half. Holmstead ended with 18 points, including only four points in the second half, getting terrorized by Thea Hanato-Smith’s tough defense.
UHH manufactured an 8-0 run to trim the lead to 58-57, capped by a close-range Imai bucket, with 5:02 to go. Then both teams couldn’t play defense without fouling. The Red Storm made five straight free throws to take a 63-57 advantage with 3:50 to play.
Down 66-63, Imai was fouled on a drive to the rim with 17.9 seconds left. But she clanked both free throws. The Red Storm, who had far more turnovers than the Vulcans (21-10), eventually ran out the clock.
Dixie State 45 22 — 67
UHH 39 24 — 63
