A blazing shooting performance in the second quarter Friday proved to be enough to power the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team to a 69-55 win over UC Riverside and into the championship game of the Big West Tournament.
Hawaii forward Amy Atwell hit six 3-pointers, passing the program’s single-season record along the way, and finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds in the semifinal victory at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.
The top-seeded Rainbow Wahine (19-9 ) advanced to the Big West final for the fourth time in coach Laura Beeman’s tenure and will try to win their first tournament title since 2016. UH faces the winner of today’s second semifinal between second-seeded UC Irvine and sixth-seed UC Davis in the championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“You have to take it back to it’s just another basketball game. If you get wrapped up in all the hype and all the pressure you’re not going to come out here and perform, ” Atwell said on the ESPN + broadcast.
“Yes, it’s a big stage and we want this really badly, but we have to play our game.”
UH went 11-for-21 from 3-point range—including a 7-for-7 performance in the second quarter—led by Atwell’s 6-for-8 afternoon. UH forward Kallin Spiller finished with 11 points and guard Olivia Davies added 10. Guard Ashley Thoms had eight points with two 3-pointers, the second helping to slow UCR’s comeback bid in the fourth quarter.
UCR guard Jada Holland led the Highlanders with 15 points and guard Olivia West added 12. The Highlanders cut a 26-point first-half deficit to 11 going into the fourth quarter before UH was able to pull away in the final period to win its seventh straight game while halting UCR’s winning streak at eight.
“We have a group that’s figured it out all year long, they find a way and that’s really fun to coach, ” Beeman said.
Hawaii opened up a 16-7 lead in the first quarter against a cold-shooting UC Riverside team then broke away in the second quarter.
The Wahine went 10-for-14 from the field in the quarter and took a 43-21 lead into halftime as UH went 9-for-12 from behind the arc in the first half.
Atwell was held to four points in UH’s quarterfinal win over CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday and was 0-for-8 from 3-point range in the last two games. She ended the drought at the 5 :39 mark of the first quarter when she got a 3-pointer to rattle through the basket.
She then hit all four of her 3-point attempts in the second quarter with Thoms, Spiller and Davies also connecting from behind the arc.
Atwell went into the break with a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds as UH shot 50 % from the field to UCR’s 26 % (7-for-27, 0-for-6 from 3 ). With her fourth 3-pointer of the half, Atwell broke the previous UH single-season record for 3-pointers of 66 set by Julissa Tago in 2020.
As impressive as the Wahine were in the second quarter, they struggled just as mightily in the third.
UH went 2-for-13 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range and committed eight turnovers in the quarter. UC Riverside outscored the Wahine 18-7 and closed to 50-39 when guard Jordan Webster hit the Highlanders’ second 3-pointer of the game just before the third-quarter buzzer.
UCR trailed 58-47 when Holland converted a three-point play, but Atwell answered by stepping into a 3-pointer from the top to extend the lead to 14 with 5 :58 left.
The Highlanders tried to stay close at 63-51 when Davies found Thoms for a 3-pointer and guard Kelsie Imai scored on a cut to the basket to stretch the lead back to 17.