Hawai‘i 66, Alcorn State 63
Hawai‘i held off a scrappy Alcorn State team to open the Pepsi Rainbow Wahine Invitational with 66-63 win Wednesday. With the victory, the Rainbow Wahine improve to 5-8 on the season.
Senior forward Breanna Arbuckle led a trio of UH players who scored in double-figures while sophomore forward Kamilah Jackson had a game-high 10 rebounds on Wednesday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Arbuckle scored a team-high 17 points, 10 of which came in the second half. She sank three crucial free throws and had one of her three blocks in the final three minutes of the game to help lift UH over the Braves. Arbuckle went to the free throw line eight times and drilled a career-high 13-out-of-15 foul shots. She also contributed six rebounds and tied her career-high with five assists.
Joining Arbuckle in the double-digit points club were Vicky Tagalicod and Kanisha Bello. Tagalicod, who is in just her second week of action, was one rebound short of recording her first double-double as she tallied season-highs of 14 points and nine rebounds. She went 6-of-13 from the floor and 2-of-4 from the charity stripe. Bello posted 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting with one three-pointer while going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. She chipped in a career-high six rebounds. Freshman point guard Alissa Campanero tied her career-high with six assists, but also had six turnovers in 38 minutes of action.
Jackson had her five-game double-double streak come to a close as she was just one point shy of getting her sixth in a row. She scored nine points to go with her 10 rebounds with an assist and a steal.
As a team, the Rainbow Wahine shot 43 percent (20-of-47) from the field and 76 percent from the free throw line (25-of-33), and won the rebounding battle 42-39.
With the game coming down to the wire, Tagalicod's jumper with 3:23 left tied the game again at 61-61 and a foul shot by Arbuckle gave UH the lead again, 62-61. Alcorn State see-sawed ahead with 1:41 left on a jumper by Shamika Breedlove to make it 62-63. But Arbuckle and Bello both sank pressure two free-throws a piece to seal UH's fourth win in five games.