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SAN FRANCISCO—The University of Hawai`i women's basketball team fell in their season opener at San Francisco, 65-52 at War Memorial Gym. It also marked the beginning of a new era for women's basketball at UH with head coach Laura Beeman at the helm. A trio of newcomers—Monica DeAngelis, Destiny King and Diane Moore—led UH with 10 points apiece while Kamilah (Jackson) Martin tallied a game-high 15 rebounds in the loss and finished a bucket short of a double-double with eight points.
 
The Rainbow Wahine came out fighting. They kept the Dons off-balance with a tenacious defense that forced seven turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game en route to an early 13-5 lead. But then USF started to chip away­ as they took advantage of five UH miscues that helped them go on a 15-0 run to tie and then overtake UH to a 19-13 lead. The Dons never looked back and built as big a lead as 15 points with 7:54 left in second half. But then UH fought back and mounted a rally that cut their deficit to 57-52 on a 15-5 run of their own close the gap to five points on a put-back by Martin with 1:43 left on the clock. The Dons called a quick 30-second time out and came back with a 3-point shot drilled by USF's Mel Khlok to shut the door. San Francisco was able to capitalize on some late untimely turnovers to extend their lead to 13, scoring eight unanswered points to close the game.
           
Hawai`i out-rebounded San Francisco, 38-to-35 with Martin grabbing double-digit boards for the 37th time in her career. Her four defensive rebounds pushed her past former Rainbow Wahine Jade Abele (2001-05) to No. 6 in the UH record books for career rebounds. Martin—who was handcuffed with four fouls for much of the second half—had eight points on the night, all of which came in the second half. She also had two assists and three steals in the game.
 
However, the Dons shot 23-for-53 for a 43.4 shooting percentage to UH's 31.3% (15-for-48). USF just edged out UH in turnovers (20-to-21) but were able to turn their TO's into 22 points whereas UH was able to convert USF's mistakes into 12 points. San Francisco outscored the 'Bows in the paint, 26-to-12 and off the bench, 20-to-11. Hawai`i was able to get to the free-throw line 34 times—15 more than the Dons. UH sank 6-of-8 foul shots in the first half, but in the second, they could only sink 50% on 12-of-26 shooting from the charity stripe.
 
DeAngelis was 2-of-5 on the night and made 6-of-8 free throws while Moore was 3-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free throw line with five rebounds and an assist. King was 3-of-11 with a pair of treys and 2-for-2 at the line with one rebound.
 
San Francisco's Khlok had a game-high 17 points and four steals while Aundrea Gordon led the Dons with seven rebounds.
 
It was just the sixth time the UH opened its season on the road and are now 2-4 in those contests. Hawai'i is 25-13 in season openers overall. UH and USF are now tied at 4-to-4 in their series history.

The Rainbow Wahine return to host the Jack in the Box Rainbow Wahine Classic next week, Nov. 16-18. Defending NCAA champion and top-ranked Baylor; 12-time defending PAC12 champ and No. 4-ranked Stanford; and two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champions, Tennesse-Martin will all be participating in the three-day tournament.