HENDERSON, Nev. — The University of Hawai'i women's basketball team claimed three of the Big West's major awards and a total of four members of the Rainbow Wahine program received recognition on the 2024-25 all-conference teams announced on Tuesday.
 
Senior guard Lily Wahinekapu joined elite company as just the third Rainbow Wahine to be named Big West Player of the Year. Center Ritorya Tamilo earned Big West Freshman of the Year honors, and Laura Beeman was voted Coach of the Year for the third time in the last four years after leading the Rainbow Wahine to the Big West's regular-season championship.
 
Wahinekapu was also voted to the All-Big West first team by the league's coaches for the second time in her UH career. Forward Imani Perez made the all-conference second team for the second straight year and was named to the All-Defensive team. Tamilo earned a spot on the All-Freshman team.
 
Wahinekapu placed her name beside Judy Mosley (1990) and Amy Atwell (2022) as UH's Big West Player of the Year honorees. Overall, she's the fifth UH player to earn a conference Player of the Year award. Nani Cockett (1998) and Raylene Howard (1999, 2000) picked up top honors in the Western Athletic Conference.
 
Wahinekapu averaged a team-high 11.1 points per game overall in the regular season and also led the Rainbow Wahine with 71 assists and 35 steals while ranking second on the team with 41 made 3-pointers. In Big West play, she raised her production to 12.2 points per game and ranks second in the conference in field-goal percentage in shooting 43.1%. She earned All-Big West recognition all four years of her career, starting in 2022 when she was named Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton. She transferred to UH prior to her sophomore year and made the all-conference first team in 2023 and was a second-team selection last season.
 
Tamilo is the fourth UH player to be named Big West Freshman of the Year and the first since Maudie Gonzalez in 1995. Mosley (1987) and Cockett (1994) also won the freshman award. Tamilo, a 6-foot-5 center from New Zealand, ranks third on the team with 7.5 points per game and leads the UH regulars in shooting at 47.8%. She broke the UH freshman record for blocked shots with 38 to date, the most for a UH player since Shawna-Lei Kuehu had 41 in the 2014-15 season. She also leads the team with 107 total rebounds (5.7 per game).
 
Perez duplicated the postseason honors she received last season in earning places on the all-conference second team and All-Defensive team. The 6-foot-4 junior has 29 blocked shots and anchored a UH defense that has ranked among the nation's leaders in field-goal percentage defense and scoring defense. Offensively, she averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 47% from the field in the regular season. In Big West games, her numbers jumped to 8.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 50.4% from the field.
 
Beeman was named Big West Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her 13-year UH career and the third time in the last four years, matching the 'Bows' run of regular-season championships. UH is 59-17 in Big West games over that span. The Rainbow Wahine dropped their first two Big West games of the season then ran off 14 consecutive victories in the program's longest winning streak since 2015. Last week, they secured the top seed in the Big West Championship, presented by Credit Union 1 and captured the regular-season title outright with a win on Senior Night.
 
UH enters this week's as the No. 1 seed in the Big West Championship. The Rainbow Wahine have a double bye into the semifinal round set for Friday, March 14 at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nev. Tipoff is scheduled for noon Pacific Time (9 a.m. Hawai'i Time).