Women’s basketball: UHH’s Kaneshiro named PacWest coach of year; Kawaha on first team

UH-Hilo women’s basketball coach David Kaneshiro was named PacWest coach of the year on Tuesday.

Kaneshiro transformed the Vulcans from 6-6 a year ago and 10-19 in 2019-20 to 14-9 and 11-8 and sixth in the PacWest.

The Vulcans were picked to finish ninth in the preseason but beat Hawaii Pacific for the first time in a decade and upset No. 5 Alaska Anchorage.

The Vulcans are in the PacWest championships for the first time since 2014.

Junior guard Mandi Kawaha was named to the PacWest first team for the first time.

She leads the team in points (366), steals (32), free throw percentage (.838), assists (93) and even blocked shots (7).

The 5-2 junior guard from Hilo High School is also a PacWest statistics leader in three categories. Kawaha is the seventh-highest scorer in the conference (averaging 15.6 a game), has the second-highest free throw percentage (.838), and the third-most assists (averaging four a game).

Kawaha has posted over 20 points in eight games and over 10 in all but four games. She surpassed the 1,000 point barrier in the last regular season of the game of the season and now has 1,002. She is only the third Vulcan to ever reach that achievement.

Kawaha is just the fourth player in UH Hilo women’s basketball history to be named to the All-PacWest First Team. Others were Sheila Azevedo (2007 and 2009), Hillary Hurley (2011 and 2012) and Allie Navarette (2019).

The Vulcans open PacWest Tournament play on Thursday with a 10:30 p.m. quarterfinal against with Academy of Art.