HONOLULU, Hawai'i - The University of Denver women's basketball team fell 78-64 to host the University of Hawai'i in its second game of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Shootout at the Stan Sheriff Center on Monday night. The loss drops the Pioneers to 8-5 on the season, while the Rainbow Wahine improve to 4-8.

Senior Kaetlyn Murdoch (Temple, Texas) led the Pioneers with a career-high 30 points, while also grabbing three rebounds and tallying three blocks. Murdoch is the first player under head coach Erik Johnson to record 30 or more points in a game. Freshman Morgan Van Riper-Rose (Eden Prairie, Minn.) finished the night with nine points, while freshman Jordan Johnston (Waterloo, Iowa) added eight points and six rebounds.

Sophomore Maiya Michel (Loma Linda, Calif.) led the team with eight rebounds and junior Emiko Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.) finished with five points, six assists and six steals.

Kamilah Jackson led the Rainbow Wahine with 20 points, while Kanisha Bello and Courtney Gaddis added 14 points. Vicky Tagalicod and Alissa Campanero both added 11 points to round out the double-figure scoring for Hawai'i.

After Hawai'i's Tagalicod sank a three-pointer to open the game, Van Riper-Rose answered with a three-pointer of her own moments later and the Pioneers began a 19-8 scoring run that took 8:46 off the clock and gave the Pioneers a 22-11 lead with 10:58 remaining in the first half.

Hawai'i answered with a 13-5 run of its own that lasted 6:58 to cut the Pioneers' advantage to 27-24 with 3:18 left on the clock. Murdoch scored the next five straight points for the Pioneers over a 25 second span to give Denver an eight-point cushion, but Hawai'i answered with a 5-0 run of its own to pull within three-points of the Pioneers as the halftime buzzer sounded.

Murdoch led all scorers at the half with 14 points, while Van Riper-Rose chipped in nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from the arc. Smith posted a solid performance in the first half, tallying three assists, four steals and zero turnovers.

Hawai'i used four straight points to open the second half to take a one-point lead over the Pioneers. Both teams battled for the next few points until the Rainbow Wahine put together a 22-7 run that began at the 16:03 mark to take their largest lead of the game of 13 points (61-48) with 8:02 remaining in the half.

Denver was able to cut the lead to nine points with 6:18 left to play, but Hawai'i used a 15-10 run to close out the game.

Up next, the Pioneers close out the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Shootout against Portland State on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. MT at the Stan Sheriff Center. Live Stats and Live Blog are available through DenverPioneers.com.

-PIONEERS-