Molokai’s Adolpho Returns to Hoops at Invitational

Molokai’s Kalei Adolpho officially returns to the Hawaii women’s basketball team this weekend. File photo UH Athletics.

By Rodney S. Yap

Former Molokai standout Kalei Adolpho officially returns to the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team this weekend for the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Invitational, Dec. 28-30.

Hawaii wraps up its non-conference preseason schedule with LIU Brooklyn, Cincinnati and Alabama in the three day tournament.

Adolpho, a sophomore center, joins the basketball team after helping the UH womens’ volleyball team to an undefeated Big West championship and the second round of the NCAA tournament. Last season as a freshman, Adolpho appeared in a total of 21 games with two starts. She twice scored a career-high 14 points, against Fresno State (Jan. 28) and Denver (Dec. 19) in which she notched her first career double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Adolpho blocked a career-high four shots twice against North Carolina State (Dec. 30) and San Jose State (Feb. 11) tallied game-highs in rebounds four times and once in points. She finished the season third on the team averaging 6.4 rebounds and third with 134 total rebounds. Adolpho averaged 19.4 minutes and 6.0 points per game with a 41.2 field goal percentage.

Kalei Adolpho. Photo UH Athletics.

For Hawaii (2-6), it will be their first DI action in 27 days with a 72-62 exhibition win over Hawaii Pacific on Dec. 1 in between. UH’s last DI game was against Utah on Dec. 1 when the Bows ended the game on a 16-2 run and fell just short of completing an epic comback, 62-61.

The Rainbow Wahine are led by junior forward Kamilah Martin who is averaging just under a double-double with 15.8 points and 9.9 rebounds a game. Martin has led UH in rebounds in every game this season and has leads the team with 17 assists (tied with Destiny King) and 10 steals. Martin has recorded three double-doubles this season against UT Martin, Oregon and No. 13 Oklahoma. King is second on the team with 9.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. The true freshman guard/forward has registered double-figures in points in four games this season. Fellow rookie Ashleigh Karaitiana has also been solid this season and is third on the team in scoring with 8.8 points per game and second with 5.5 boards per game.

Also making her return to the court is Shawna-Lei Kuehu. The junior wing suffered an inury in the season opener at San Francisco and has seen action in just one game since. In the exhibition game against HPU, Kuehu played 16 minutes and scored eight points with three rebounds and two assists off the bench.