Cold-shooting UC Irvine falls to Hawaii in Big West women’s basketball showdown

IRVINE — The UC Irvine women’s basketball team met its match on Thursday night against Hawaii and it was the Anteaters who finished on the short end.

UCI struggled with its shooting and couldn’t get a defensive stop when it was needed the most, resulting in a 56-49 loss to the Rainbow Wahine in a Big West Conference game at the Bren Events Center.

Hawaii (7-6 overall, 4-0 Big West) is 4-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season, when it played in the Western Athletic Conference.

The Anteaters (9-6, 3-2) shot 33.3% from the field and 3 for 24 from 3-point range, missing 13 straight at one point.

“We had good looks, we just kind of forced things, really in the second quarter, I thought, and then it kind of bled to the third,” UCI coach Tamara Inoue said. “We started scoring better, but then we forgot about our defensive side, which I thought we did a really good job in the first half.”

Deja Lee finished with 15 points, nine assists and five steals to lead the Anteaters, but she also struggled from long range, shooting 1 for 8 from behind the arc.

“Deja is just one of those players that just does everything that you need her to do,” Inoue said. “I know she’s not going to be happy about her shooting, but they were good shots. I thought things came to her, but getting nine assists and five steals, that’s really good.”

In a matchup of last season’s regular-season champion (UCI) and the Big West Tournament champion (Hawaii), the Anteaters came in leading the conference in scoring defense (55.6 ppg), while Hawaii was second (55.8).

The Rainbow Wahine had also held their first three Big West opponents to an average of 43.3 points.

Hawaii led 20-18 at halftime and the lead was still two points after UCI guard Diaba Konate made a jumper with 2:55 left in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Anteaters would get.

MeiLani McBee made a 3-pointer and then was fouled while making another 3-pointer from the opposite baseline on the next possession. She made the free throw and the lead had quickly swelled to 41-32 with 1:46 left in the third.

Hawaii took its nine-point lead into the fourth quarter and UCI could not get the margin closer than six points down the stretch.

“I thought they did a good job of defending us,” Inoue said.

Hawaii, which was picked to finish first in the conference ahead of the Anteaters this season, did not have any player averaging double figures in scoring coming into the game.

Imani Perez scored a career-high 17 points to double her scoring average for Hawaii and McBee contributed 12 points.

Lily Wahinekapu, who was Cal State Fullerton’s leading scorer in 2021-22 and was named the Big West Freshman of the Year that season, came in averaging a team-high 9.1 points for Hawaii and she finished with 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.

UCI, which won both games against Hawaii last season in overtime, scored the final five points of the first quarter to take its biggest lead of the game at 14-9.

Lee, who had six steals in a 60-57 loss to UC Davis on Saturday, had four steals in the first quarter.

The Anteaters took their final lead at 19-18 on a fallaway bank shot by Lee with 1:05 left in the second quarter.

Perez and Wahinekapu were a combined 6 for 6 from the field in the first half, while the rest of their team was 2 for 14.