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Hawaii women's basketball coach Laura Beeman admitted the 24 turnovers were a factor in Hawaii's season-opening loss to Portland on Thursday.
Some of that was expected. What was a surprise was the effort she said was lacking from some of the 12 players who saw the floor at Chiles Center as Hawaii fell to the Pilots 76-65 in Portland, Ore.
"We have to play hard all of the time, and I don't think every player played hard the entire game," Beeman said in a phone interview. "I think we were a little complacent. Absolutely the turnovers affected us, but we did know we were going to turn the ball over. They capitalized on ours and we did not capitalize on theirs."
Preseason All-West Coast Conference selections Emme Shearer and Maisie Burnham combined for 33 points and the Pilots led by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter before Hawaii went on a run when it finally held onto the ball.
The Rainbow Wahine cut it to eight with 1:06 left to play before back-to-back turnovers ended any chance of a miraculous comeback.
Hawaii hasn't won a season opener since 2019 and hoped to change that this year with an experienced group of returnees. The lack of effort in some areas is something Beeman hadn't seen in practice for the past month.
"You know, I am (surprised). I definitely am," Beeman said. "I didn't think that because we have not had an effort problem in practice. At times the effort and energy dipped and we need to address that. I thought Portland played incredibly hard. We had a hard time matching their pace offensively and defensively and we know it was coming. They are a very, very good team, This was regardless going to be a really tough game for us. I would have liked have seen the outcome of a total 14 team playing incredible hard."
Daejah Phillips scored a game-high 19 points and made all 11 free-throw attempts for Hawaii (0-1), which set a school record for efficiency shooting 25-for-25 from the charity stripe.
UH sophomore Jovi Lefotu, who hadn't played in a game in 22 months due to a knee injury, had seven points, three assists and three steals in 17 minutes off the bench.
"Jovi is a heck of a player. We all know that," Beeman said. "I think it's going to take her some time to get used to the pace. I think that as her confidence goes up so will her voice, but it was really fun to see her back in action."
UH used 11 players in the first quarter and 12 for the game. Ten players played at least 10 minutes, with Phillips leading the way logging 33 minutes.
Freshman center Ritorya Tamilo had 10 points on 3-for-5 shooting in her UH debut. Lily Wahinekapu, the team's leading scorer from a season ago, was held to three points on 1-for-2 shooting.
Burnham had a team-high 18 points for Portland (1-0), which was an NCAA Tournament team last season out of the WCC.
Lefotu made her first shot attempt, canning a 3-pointer from the right wing to stop a 14-2 Portland run midway through the first quarter.
UH scored the game's first five points on a Phillips putback and a Wahinekapu 3, but turned the ball over eight times and attempted just nine shots in falling behind 18-10 after the first quarter.
Hawaii cut the deficit to seven on a 3-point play by Phillips with 2:07 remaining in the first half but never got any closer.
An offensive rebound and putback by Dyani Ananiev and a fast-break layup by Natalie Fraley quickly put the Pilots back up by double digits and Portland took a 40-30 lead into halftime.
Portland scored the first six points in the third quarter to go up 46-30.
Jade Peacock ended UH's scoring drought with a 3 and then converted a fast-break layup after her own steal to help UH answer with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit back to single digits.
An 11-0 Portland run late in the third quarter pushed the lead to 20 as UH turned the ball over four times in a span of 2 minutes, 30 seconds as Portland's full-court pressure defense gave the Rainbow Wahine fits.
Shearer's jumper in the paint made it a 13-point Pilots run and Portland took a 63-43 lead into the final 10 minutes.
UH made 14 free throws in the fourth quarter and outscored Portland 22-13. Tamilo played the final 10 minutes and scored eight of her 10 points.
"Everyone got a really good taste of what Ritorya is capable of doing," Beeman said.
Hawaii will play next at Portland State on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.