Tribune-Herald
Tribune-Herald
Kirstie Williams found herself in a shooting zone on Saturday night, but it still couldn’t get the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team a much-needed road win.
Williams, a 5-foot-6 junior guard from Lincoln, Calif., hit 7 of 10 3-pointers and had a game-high 22 points as the Vulcans fell to Cal Baptist 71-60 in Riverside, Calif.
The UHH and Cal Baptist men played in the late game.
The host Lady Lancers improved to 11-6 in the Pacific West Conference standings and 13-10 overall. The Vulcans slipped to 5-10 and 6-13, respectively.
“We gave a good effort,” UHH coach David Kaneshiro said. “But we didn’t guard very well in transition in the first half, and we had too many turnovers.”
The Vulcans turned the ball over 12 times in the first 20 minutes and trailed 36-24 at the intermission.
“We played hard but had some rough stretches and Cal Baptist had a 20-point lead with 7 1/2 minutes to go,” Kaneshiro said. “But we fought back and cut it to single digits. Kirstie shot the ball well.”
Senior guard Kamie Imai followed Williams with 10 points, the only other UHH player in double figures.
Kamille Diaz led Cal Baptist with 19 points, including five 3-pointers.
Despite the loss, Kaneshiro still saw some good things.
“I think we’ve made some strides on this trip to get better,” he said. “We’ve just have to keep working hard and improving.”
The UHH women’s and men’s teams play at Azusa Pacific University on Monday night to end their three-game mainland road swing.
The Vulcans then close out the PacWest regular season with four home games — Thursday vs. Holy Names University; Feb. 24 vs. Notre Dame de Namur; Feb. 27 vs. Fresno Pacific; and March 1 vs. Hawaii Pacific University.
UHH 24 36 — 60
CBU 36 35 — 71