The Brigham Young University Hawaii women's basketball team opened a new era in Seasider sports November 18 as they opened their inaugural season with a 77-67 loss to Oakland City. A crowd of over 600 fans cheered the Seasiders on in the first-ever BYU-Hawaii women's basketball despite seeing their team fall short on the scoreboard.
The Seasiders ignited the crowd by scoring the first four points of the game and led by as many as six points, at 18-12, in the opening stanza before the more experienced Lady Oaks took the lead for good at 31-29 with under three minutes to play in the opening half. Oakland City, a small Baptist university in Indiana, led 33-29 at the break. BYU-Hawaii cut the lead to two points early in the second half but a 15-6 Oakland City run gave the Lady Oaks a double-digit lead at 50-39 and the young Seasiders never got closer than eight the rest of the game.
Latoya Wily, a former All-State player at Kahuku High School, returned from two years at Alcorn State to lead the Seasiders with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Her sister Artevia Wily added 19 points and seven rebounds while Juanita Afamasaga scored nine points, grabbed ten rebounds, and dished out three assists. Kayla Burningham handed out six assists and scored eight points in the loss.
The Seasiders' already small team of nine dwindled as they ran into foul trouble with two players fouling out and three others finishing with four fouls each.
Jodi Hobbs scored 21 points to lead Oakland City and was a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line. Karissa Walter led the Lady Oaks with six assists and six rebounds in their first game of the season.
The same two teams will meet in a rematch on Monday at 6:00 pm in Laie.