At least against one of its Pacific West Conference Hawaii pod opponents, UH-Hilo’s women’s basketball team would probably take this effort four more times.
The workmanlike approach certainly worked over the weekend against the Chaminade Silverswords, who the Vulcans handled again Sunday, evening their record with 57-38 victory at Honolulu’s McCabe Gym.
The result, on the scoreboard at least, was remarkably similar to UHH’s 56-39 conquest day earlier.
“We were more consistent today and I think we executed better,” coach David Kaneshiro said. “The score didn’t show it, but we no doubt did a better job running our (offense).
“We couldn’t quite finish, but the execution was there.”
Jenna Waki scored a career-high with 13 points with eight rebounds, Mandi Kawaha added 13 points off the bench, and junior transfer Bree Olson grabbed 12 rebounds, five on the offensive end, and scored 10 points in a game UHH (2-2) led wire-to-wire.
At 5-foot-11, Olson is UHH’s tallest player who sees regular playing time, but the redshirt also is comfortable playing on the perimeter. Olson was 5 from 8 from the field. As a team, the Vuls were just 22 of 68.
“She gives us a lot,” Kaneshiro said, “running the floor, finding a couple of things in transition and finding the open pass.”
The Vuls’ lead never go below double-digits after Kim Schmelz’s jumper early in the second half boosted the lead to 30-19, and the advantage ballooned to as many as 23 points.
As was somewhat expected, UHH looks like the middle team in the three-team Hawaii pod. The Vuls head back to Oahu next weekend to face perennial power Hawaii Pacific, who handled the Vuls twice to open the regular season, and is ranked third in the nation and is winners of 28 games in a row.
On Sunday, Chaminade (0-2) shot just 22 percent and was a horrid 3 of 22 on 3-pointers.
“Our positioning on defense was a lot more consistent today,” Kaneshiro said. “I don’t think you can just credit our defense. They certainly got some open some looks.
“We still have some work to do, but it was a solid effort.”
