HONOLULU – The Hawai'i women's basketball team took steps forward in the finale of the 2016 Rainbow Wahine Showdown despite falling to No. 7 Mississippi State 66-41.
The Rainbow Wahine (2-5) forced 20 turnovers and held the Bulldogs (7-0) to 40.6 percent (26-of-26) shooting and 33.3 percent (6-of-18) from 3-point range in the game.

"I thought we did a great job in our zone," Beeman said. "They average over 85 points per game. We held them to 66 and we turned them over 20 times, so I'm very okay with what our zone did."

Mississippi State opened the game with an 11-0 run but Hawai'i responded with a 15-2 run of its own to take a 15-13 lead 11 minutes into the game. The lead was short-lived, however, as Mississippi State answered with a 17-0 run to pull ahead 30-15 before halftime, and led by double-digits the rest of the way.

"Right now it's not about our overall record, it's about us getting better, which we did tonight," Beeman said. "If we can play like we did tonight in the latter half of our non-conference season and into conference play, we're going to win more than we lose."

Sarah Toeaina and Briana Harris led the Rainbow Wahine with 11 points each, and Toeaina added six rebounds. Julissa Tago added eight points and six rebounds for Hawai'i, and Makenna Woodfolk had five points, eight rebounds, four steals and two blocks. Toeaina averaged 13.7 points per game in the three-game tournament, earned All-Tournament team honors for her efforts.

Mississippi State's Victoria Vivians had 10 points, three rebounds, four steals and two assists in the game, and earned Tournament MVP honors for the champion Bulldogs. Chinwe Okorie added 18 points and seven rebounds, and was an all-tournament team selection.

The road doesn't get much easier for the Rainbow Wahine, as they visit No. 9/10 UCLA on Dec. 4 in their next game. Hawai'i will also face Hawai'i Pacific (Dec. 11), Nevada (Dec. 18), Boise State (Dec. 20) and Grand Canyon (Dec. 29) before opening up Big West Conference play in January.

Rainbow Wahine Showdown All-Tournament Team
Lexi Bando – Oregon
Sabrina Ionescu – Oregon
Dezz Ramos – San Jose State
Sarah Toeaina – Hawai'i
Chinwe Okorie – Mississippi State
MVP: Victoria Vivians – Mississippi State