Greg Yamamoto | SL

---

Greg Yamamoto | SL

---

Daejah Phillips scored a team-high 22 points with eight rebounds to lead the University of Hawaii women's basketball team to a 71-54 win over visiting UH-Hilo in a non-conference game at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center Sunday afternoon.

The Rainbow Wahine avoided a second straight loss to a Division-II opponent to open the season to even their record at 1-1. The Vulcans were making their season debut and played the game as an exhibition.

Phillips, a freshman guard, scored 16 of her points after halftime. She was 8-of-13 shooting from the field and 6 of 8 on free throws. Six of her rebounds came on the offensive glass and she also notched four assists and one block in 30 minutes played.

Sophomore forward Kasey Neubert scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench and redshirt senior forward Amy Atwell recorded 11 boards and seven points in the win. Freshman guard Kelsie Imai, a 2020 Waiakea alum, made her first career start and posted five points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Junior guard Mandi Kawaha, a 2018 Hilo High graduate, led UH-Hilo with a career-high 23 points. The 5-foot-2 Kawaha also grabbed a team-high six rebounds with two assists and two steals in 35 minutes played.

Redshirt sophomore Mikayla Tablit (Konawaena '18) had three points, four boards and a steal off the bench for the Vulcans, who are coming off of a 10-16 record a season ago, and a seventh-place finish in the PacWest Conference.

UH-Hilo led at halftime, 33-32, but was outscored by Manoa, 22-9, in the third quarter.

The Rainbow Wahine led by as many as 21 points despite 22 turnovers.

UH out-rebounded Hilo, 56 to 20, and also dominated in second-chance points (17-0), bench points (28-5) and points in the paint (46-12).

The original tip-off time of 2 p.m. was pushed back about half an hour because UH-Hilo was late in arriving to SimpliFi Arena due to their flight over to Oahu being delayed Sunday morning.

Hawaii was coming off of last Sunday's 82-74 loss to HPU in its season opener. The Rainbow Wahine open Big West Conference play on the road at Cal Poly on Dec. 27 and 28 before returning home to host UC Riverside on Jan. 8 and 9.