In a razor-thin margin, Hawai’i has been selected to claim the 2024-25 Big West women’s basketball crown in a vote of The Big West’s 11 head coaches announced Tuesday on The Field of 68’s season preview. It is the third straight season that the Rainbow Wahine have been voted to the top of the table.
Hawai’i received 96 total points and six first-place votes after last year’s regular-season championship. UC Irvine, picked to finish second in the polling, landed just one point shy of UH, compiling 95 points and five first-place votes. The third slot in the voting was claimed by UC Davis, tallying 81 points.
Four of the six Preseason All-Big West Team selections came from the top trio of teams, with Hawai’i the lone side to record a pair of picks.
Last year, UH finished the campaign with a 20-11 overall mark, a 17-3 record in Big West play to earn the regular-season championship, and capped the year with an appearance in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament as the league’s automatic berth.
In 2024-25, the Rainbow Wahine return a veteran roster led by eight seniors, including three fifth-year players in guards Kelsie Imai, MeiLani McBee and Daejah Phillips. The ’Bows return 87 percent of their scoring from last season’s squad that includes the tandem of preseason selections in Phillips and Lily Wahinekapu, making consecutive team listings.
Phillips is coming off an All-Big West First Team season after posting averages of 10.77 points, 4.50 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Hailing from Las Vegas, Nev., and embarking on a fifth year for Hawai’i, Phillips was the 2023 Big West Championships most valuable player in Henderson and Sixth Player of the Year for the second time in 2024.
Hawai’i native Wahinekapu enters a senior season for the ‘Bows after a junior campaign as the team’s leading scorer with 11.6 points per game and a .348 three-point percentage to go along with 65 assists. The 2021-22 Big West Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton is poised to make an on-court reunion with sister Jovi Lefotu who redshirted last year after a January injury.
Second in the polling is UC Irvine, who return the reigning Big West Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the 2024 Big West Championship in Déja Lee. Lee led the Anteaters with 13.9 points per game on 43.4 percent shooting and set a single-season school record with 82 steals in 2023-24. 2024 champions UC Irvine finished the year with a 23-9 overall record and a 16-4 mark in league action.
Advancing to the NCAA Championships after downing UC Davis in the final, the Anteaters have compiled three straight 20-win seasons for the first time in program history. Along with Lee, UCI returns a veteran core that includes Nikki Tom (6.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg), Neveah Dean (5.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and the tandem junior of Hunter Hernandez and Olivia Williams who are back after redshirting last season.
2024 runner-up UC Davis compiled 81 points to take third in the polling. The Aggies will look to replace Evanne Turner’s 14.8 points per game on .412 shooting, but return four starters to the fray after finished at 20-14 (13-7 BW) last season. Preseason All-Big West selection in fifth-year guard Tova Sabel is back after contributing 13.8 points on .402 shooting with 4.4 rebounds per game while earning second-team honors and a place on the all-tournament team in 2023-24. Also back for one of The Big West’s top shooting squads is Sydney Burns (5.5 ppg, .418 FG%), Megan Norris (9.9 ppgs, .476 FG%, 7.4 rpg) and Mazatlan Harris (5.7 ppg, .467 FG%).
Just three points separates teams No. 4, 5 and 6 in the final coaches’ tally with Long Beach State (63 points), followed closely by Cal Poly (61) and UC San Diego (60).
The Tritons return the services of San Diego native and 2023-24 Big West Freshman of the Year Sumayah Sugapong (14.0 ppg, 2.1 apg), one of the six players on the Preseason All-Big West Team. UC San Diego is eligible for the conference and national postseason after completing their four-year reclassification period to Division I, and will be eyeing a spot in the eight-team Big West bracket.
The final selection on the preseason team is UC Santa Barbara fifth year player Alyssa Marin. In 2023-24, Marin averaged 12.1 points and a team-best 3.3 assists per game. The Gauchos were selected seventh in the preseason poll with 52 points and welcome one of four new head coaches in the league in Renee Jimenez, a NCAA Division II semfinalist with Cal State San Marcos a season ago.
UC Riverside (40 points), Cal State Fullerton (25), Cal State Bakersfield (18) and CSUN (14) round out the preseason prognostications. Should the predictions ring true, the Highlanders will hold the eighth and final spot in the bracket of the 2025 Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by Credit Union 1 returns for the fourth-straight year inside Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nev., March 12-15.
The 2024-25 season begins with seven teams in action on Monday, Nov. 4, with Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara joining the fray on Wednesday, Nov. 6, and preseason favorite Hawai’i opening up on the road the following day.
In a new scheduling strategy this season, The Big West is moving to an 11-week league slate with the addition of Bold Week from December 5-7, 2024, and then resuming conference play on Thursday, Jan. 2.