Hawaii opens Big West play with win in women’s basketball

Ashley Thoms made four 3-pointers off the bench to lead the Hawaii women’s basketball team to a 59-49 win over Cal State Fullerton to open Big West Conference play today at Titan Gym in Fullerton, Calif.

Kelsie Imai added nine points, five rebounds, four steals and four assists as the bench played a big role in Hawaii (4-6, 1-0) winning its conference opener for the third straight season.

Imani Perez had eight points and nine rebounds after missing UH’s previous game against UCLA.

Lily Wahinekapu’s layup in the closing seconds of the first half gave Hawaii its biggest lead of the game at 33-19 at intermission.

The Titans (5-7, 1-1) opened the second half on a 10-0 run and got within two points twice but never took the lead.

UH outscored Cal State Fullerton 12-7 in the fourth quarter as it held the Titans without a point for nearly seven minutes.

The Rainbow Wahine played without second-leading scorer Daejah Phillips, who missed her first game of the season.

Hawaii returns home for two games against Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Northridge next week.