It had been a season of hiking uphill for the Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team a year ago, but winning 6 of their last 10 games nearly brought the Vulcans to the Pacific West Conference’s last playoff spot. ADVERTISING It
It had been a season of hiking uphill for the Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team a year ago, but winning 6 of their last 10 games nearly brought the Vulcans to the Pacific West Conference’s last playoff spot.
Almost, but not quite. Coach David Kaneshiro’s team dug such a hole for themselves at this part of the season that it required the rest of the schedule to try to see the clear light of day. The Vulcans started the season with three home games, losing all three — two to Alaska-Anchorage and one to Alaska-Fairbanks — by and average score of 86-42. That was followed by three more losses and the hole was deep.
He knew it would be a challenge because it was a re-start season, a year with a bunch of new faces trying to work together. This year is nothing like that, Kaneshiro has six seniors and his top three scorers back from a 10-15 team, 10-10 in the PWC. The outlook is more optimistic, right?
“Hopefully, we’re better,” Kaneshiro said after practice one night this week, “I don’t mean to dodge the question, but until we get into some games, I really don’t know how we’ll play; I’m looking forward to see how we react when we aren’t just playing against ourselves.”
That happens Friday when the Vulcans open the season in Laie against Cal State Dominguez Hills, a team that has won either the regular season championship or postseason tournament of the California Collegiate Athletic Association in each of the last three years.
The twist for Dominguez Hills is that it will play UHH with its third coach since the end of the 2015-16 season. John Bonner is the new head coach, having replaced an interim coach who had replaced coach Molly Goodenbour, the former Stanford standout who was there for the championship runs. Goodenbour left for Cal State East Bay and before she got settled in she took another job, this one at the University of San Francisco. She took her former assistant who had been the interim, and now Bonner has the job.
Dominguez Hills lost most of its firepower though graduation but it still has last season’s newcomer of the year and all-CCAA first team member Imani Brown.
Will all that turmoil and one remaining top player be enough for the Toros to send Hawaii Hilo off on the wrong foot?
“I just want to see if we can get some solid, consistent execution going in the offense,” Kaneshiro said, “early on, that’s what you hope for, that there’s some carry over from practice to these first few games.”
When they tipoff against the Toros, Kaneshiro said he will likely start senior Alexa Jacobs (5.2 points per game), hobbled by a meniscus injury last year, and 5-foot-3 freshman Sharlei Graham-Bernisto in the backcourt with each sharing all duties.
“We don’t have a ‘1’ or a ‘2’ as such,” Kaneshiro said of the standard point guard-shooting guard relationship, “we let them both work it out. We have guards and forwards, that’s pretty much how we look at it.”
The forwards he expects to start are sophomore Kim Schmelz, the leading returning scorer, averaging 12 points a game last season, Sydney Mercer, a senior who showed offensive flashes last season with a 25-point game, had eight double-digit scoring games and finished with an 8.8 average. The other starter is Patience Taylor, a 6-foot sophomore who plays more like a conventional center, averaged only 4 points a game but she had a strong second half and could be a force inside if she continues to improve.
Off the bench, Kaneshiro can go to seniors Pilialoha Kaliawa, a 6-foot post player from Ka’u who attended Upmqua Community College for two years and 5-11 Asia Smith who played with Kaliawa at Umpqua but missed last season.
“It will be good to see her out there,” Kaneshiro said of Smith. “She has practiced very well, if she plays as well as she has practiced she will have an important spot in the rotation.”
Combinations inside, matching one player with another because they feed of each other’s strengths isn’t on the radar.
“We just want to see a rotation in there where people are contributing,” Kaneshiro said. “That’s where we’re at right now, just let them play and see what we get.”
Two of the essential players in last year’s second half improvement, senior guards Vanessa Mancera and Lauren Hong, are both sidelined with knee injuries, opening the spot for Graham-Bernisto. Mancera will make the weekend trip but may not play until the end of the month. Hong probably won’t rejoin the team until the first of the year.
Following Friday’s game against Dominguez Hills, the Vulcans play 24 hours later against Central Washington.
Both games are scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
