A turnover-prone University of Hawai'i women's basketball team paid the price against visiting Nevada last night.

Freshman guard Brandi Fitzgerald scored 13 of her team-high 17 points in the second half, and Hawai'i committed a season-high 32 turnovers in a 66-61 Western Athletic Conference loss.

A crowd of 578 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Nevada coach Kim Gervasoni win her first WAC road game in her three-year career. It also was Nevada's first-ever victory in Honolulu in 10 games.

Hawai'i dropped to 11-7 overall and 2-5 in the WAC. Nevada won its fourth consecutive game and improved to 7-12 and 3-4 in the WAC.

"We didn't play smart," Hawai'i post player Brittany Grice said. "We had spurts and moments that we did, but our heads didn't seem to be there, all across board."

Hawai'i has endured a difficult week with the suspension of one of its top players, junior Alofa Toiaivao, for violating team rules, and had just two days of practice this week because of a WAC schedule that had the team play four games in eight days.

The Rainbow Wahine refused to use those issues as excuses last night, and conceded Nevada just outplayed them.

The Wolf Pack employed a full-court press the majority of the game, and got 19 steals, and scored 26 points off turnovers.

"It's just a huge win for our program," Gervasoni said. "Hawai'i's a great team. The stars were kind of aligned tonight."

Amy Sanders led Hawai'i with 19 points, Janevia Taylor added 13 and Grice 10. Traci Graham added 13 points for Nevada.

Hawai'i's turnovers got so bad last night that on one possession in the first half a Rainbow Wahine unloaded a wayward, cross-court pass to a surprised UH coach Jim Bolla.

"Honestly, on the turnovers, we just threw it away," Taylor said. "We gave the game away."

Bolla said his team made things difficult by not attacking Nevada's press to get easy baskets.

"When we attacked their pressure we were fine," Bolla said. "But 75 percent of the game, we let their press bother us. When we played around with their press, we got into our scoring area with 10 or 12 seconds left (on the 30-second shot clock) and we had to rush a shot."

Hawai'i, which trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, took two brief leads in the second half.

After Dellena Criner's foul shot gave Nevada a 63-61 lead with 15.1 seconds left in the game, Hawai'i got the ball to Sanders. She drove the length of the court, but missed a layup under heavy pressure.

"I think I was just going full speed, and I didn't take anything off the layup," Sanders said. "I just went up too hard."

After the miss, Kate Saltmarsh was fouled and she hit two foul shots for a 65-61 lead. After another missed shot by the Rainbow Wahine, Fitzgerald was fouled and she hit one of two free throws to cap the scoring.

In the first half, Dalia Solia's basket pulled Hawai'i to 16-15, but the Wolf Pack went on a 17-3 run for a 32-18 lead. Graham scored seven points during the surge.

Hawai'i responded with an 11-0 run — led by Sanders' eight points — to trail 32-29 at intermission.

The Wolf Pack increased its lead to 40-31, but Hawai'i rallied to cut the deficit to one point six times before taking its first lead of the second half, 51-50, on Sanders' layup off a long outlet pass from Tanya Smith with 7:14 left.

After Smith's foul shot gave Hawai'i a 52-51 lead, Nevada went on an 11-2 run to take a 62-54 lead with 2:39 remaining.

Hawai'i has lost five of its last six games.

The Rainbow Wahine's next WAC games will be at Idaho, Feb. 2, and at San Jose State, Feb. 4.

Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.