One night after winning on a last-second shot, the Rainbow Wahine basketball team withstood a last-second shot.

Jena Stutzman's 3-point attempt in front of her team's bench missed everything as time expired as Hawai'i held on for a 63-60 win over Kent State in the final game of the Waikíkí Beach Marriott Showdown at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.

"I think that we found out that we all want it at the end, we'll all fight for each other, and it's like a family pretty much. No one will do something to bring our team down," said Hawai'i junior guard Leilani Galdones, who finished with 15 points. "We all want to move forward, and I think we've been working on our weaknesses, and we slowly improved, but we still need work."

Keisha Kanekoa's jumper with 3.3 seconds left helped Hawai'i beat Kent State, 54-53, on Tuesday, the first night of the two-game series. Last night, Kanekoa made 1 of 2 free throws with 4.2 seconds left to help Hawai'i end a scoring drought in the game's final four minutes, and the Rainbow Wahine got a big boost from reserves Mai Ayabe and Allie Patterson, who scored 10 points each.

"We know they know how to play in crunch situations and every tough situation, and we knew they would come back," Hawai'i coach Dana Takahara-Dias said of Kent State.

After weathering a mini rally by the Golden Flashes (6-5) in the second half, the Rainbow Wahine (6-7) almost couldn't withstand another rally in front of a crowd of 600. Hawai'i didn't make a field goal after Kanekoa's basket with 4:18 left made it 62-55.

Two Hawai'i turnovers helped Kent State close to 62-58 on Jamilah Humes' jumper with 1:29 remaining. Hawai'i then had another turnover, but Kent State gave it right back on a traveling violation with 45 seconds left.

Hawai'i's Breanna Arbuckle, who also had 10 points, missed two free throws with 13 seconds remaining, and a putback by Humes cut it to 62-60 with 5.1 seconds left.

"We needed to get some points, we needed to get some stops," Kent State coach Bob Lindsay said. "I think we played sort of like we did yesterday. We didn't execute particularly well offensively. We missed the easy shots."

Hawai'i turned to its bench after staring at a 10-point deficit in the first half, clawing back with a 12-0 run to close out the half with a 31-29 lead after Ayabe made a 3-pointer and then a layup with 8 seconds remaining. Ayabe, a 5-foot-4 junior, hit a 3 and Galdones hit two 3s to help Hawai'i lead by seven early in the second half.

"It's very encouraging to know as a coaching staff that you can put many people in and they can contribute in big ways even though they're small in stature," said Takahara, who started Ayabe in the second half.

Hawai'i outrebounded Kent State 46 to 30, with Rebecca Dew gathering 15 rebounds to go with nine points.

"I think we're showing steady improvement, and as we work together, we'll show more and more improvement, and I think that dominating the boards was a big part of our win," Dew said.

Humes had 17 points, Stutzman had 14 and Taisja Jones added 11 for Kent State.