Another outright regular-season championship begat a haul of Big West postseason awards for the Hawaii women’s basketball team.
Point guard Lily Wahinekapu was named Big West Player of the Year, Laura Beeman was named Coach of the Year and center Ritorya Tamilo earned Freshman of the Year.
Wahinekapu was UH’s representative on the six-player BWC first team while forward Imani Perez was named to the five-player second team, in addition to the BWC All-Defensive team.
"It just goes back to what this team means to each other and how hard this team works," Beeman told Hawaii media in a Zoom call on Tuesday. "These awards don't happen in a vacuum ... to see that the team's hard work pay off and their teammates get these awards is just really special."
UH coaches announced the awards to the team at a practice on the mainland ahead of this week's Big West championships in Henderson, Nev.
Wahinekapu, an Iolani School graduate from Kaneohe, began her college career as the Big West Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton and prepares to play her final career games as just the third person in her hometown program's history to receive the Big West’s top individual honor (fifth for a top honor including UH’s WAC era). The senior averaged a team-high 11.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game this season.
She received All-Big West honors each year after transferring to UH for the last three years of her career.
"Hard for me to contain my emotion," Beeman said of the second player of the year of her tenure (Amy Atwell, 2021-22). "I was on the plane (when I heard), and I swore to secrecy, and I thought I was just going to jump up and down in that plane. It was absolutely amazing, deserved. I'm so happy for her."
Wahinekapu said everyone who got the nod on the team was deserving and that the team played a large role in her award, which she called "an honor."
She said, "I was very shocked, very happy at the same time, but more so shocked."
Her highest career scoring average (14 points per game) and usage rate came at Fullerton under Jeff Harada. When she came home to play with her younger sister Jovi Lefotu, she joined a program that had just paired conference regular-season and tournament championships together for the first time.
She acknowledged it took a little bit of an adjustment to adapt to the more egalitarian Wahine team scheme.
"I had to adapt to the playing style here at UH, and I found my groove eventually," said Wahinekapu, an 1,000-point scorer in her three UH seasons. "But yeah, coming into this program, everyone has an impact on this team, and just trying to find my way and not overstep (my) contributing."
Beeman has wanted Wahinekapu to take over more, at times.
"That first practice with me and Lily was a, ‘I got your back, let's just play. And I believe in you. Want you to be your best, whatever we need to do to help you with that, we're going to be here and do that for you,'" the coach said.
For Beeman it is her fourth coaching honor in the conference, and third in the last four years as it has mirrored UH winning the conference outright three times since 2022. With four conference coach of the year honors, Beeman matches Vince Goo for the most in program history. Goo won three in the Big West and one in the WAC.
"That’s pretty cool. We both had and have great people around us," Beeman said.
Beeman said it was a staff award.
Perez, who has played for Beeman for three years, said the success and the award were due to the coach's "drive."
"She definitely pushes all of us outside and in basketball, and she's really big at connecting with the team," Perez said.
Tamilo is UH’s first BWC Freshman of the Year since Maudie Gonzalez in 1995, and third overall. The 6-foot-5 New Zealander has set the UH program record for blocks for a freshman with 38 and counting, and has supplied 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game on a team-best 47.8% from the field.
"I didn’t even know the awards was a thing, really. I was super happy when I found out," the Kiwi said.
Tamilo announced her presence with a dunk at the team's preseason fan event and was seldom apart from the action over the ensuing months. Beeman made no secret early on her expectations for the first-year college player.
Perez and Tamilo teamed as an imposing, shot-blocking starting frontcourt for opponents to solve. Those two and backup big Brooklyn Rewers were the fulcrum of one of the nation's leading teams in field-goal percentage defense as the UH guards learned to funnel opposing backcourt players right to their long arms.
"The girl came in and we didn't know what to expect from her," Perez said. "I didn't know what to expect, but she's really shown and proven herself, just defensively, offensively. She has great hands. She could shoot outside like she's genuinely a whole threat. And people are scared when they do see us on the court together, which I think is just amazing."
Tamilo acknowledged that the distance from home and the physicality of the college game were tough obstacles early on.
"It’s never really easy coming from afar, coming from New Zealand," she said. "But the team and coaches have really helped me settle here. I couldn’t have gotten this award without them, so I’m super grateful."
Perez, a 6-foot-4 junior, duplicated her honors as a sophomore on the second and defensive teams. UH’s defensive anchor averaged 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds per game and blocked 29 shots.
"I think my season has been ups and downs, but mostly ups, I would say," Perez said. "Definitely the growth part. And then it is my third season, so I kind of know the ropes around everything and everyone's been great at helping and supporting and just getting us where we are."
Beeman considers Perez the team's defensive MVP and would've liked to see her take home the BWC top defensive honor, but that went to UC Riverside guard Makayla Rose, who averaged nearly two steals per game.
"I kind of call her The Silent Assassin," Beeman said. "You just don't know all the things she does and the confidence she brings to everybody else on the court, she guards the best player night in and night out. We can switch her on the people you know she she's not a banger. She never will be. She just is kind of where she needs to be at the right time."
UH’s previous Big West Players of the Year are Judy Mosley (1990) and Amy Atwell (2022). Nani Cockett (1998) and Raylene Howard (1999, 2000) were WAC Players of the Year.
UH (22-8), the No. 1 seed in the eight-team Big West championships, has a double-bye into the semifinals at 9 a.m. Hawaii time against an opponent to be determined among No. 4 seed UC San Diego, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara or No. 8 Cal Poly. Tournament play begins Wednesday.
Note: This story has been updated with details and quotes.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
