The Hawaii women’s basketball team embarked on its last regular-season road trip riding high with a 14-game winning streak and a chance to lock up at least a share of a Big West championship.

After two frustrating road games, the Rainbow Wahine will have to regroup and try to realize their title aspirations at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Saturday afternoon’s 74-66 setback at UC Davis marked the second straight game in which UH (20-8, 14-4 BWC) gave up a double-digit lead and faltered down the stretch.

That this one came against UH’s chief conference rival only added to the handwringing. The Aggies (18-10, 12-6), who knocked regular-season champ UH out in the conference tournament semifinals last March, rallied from a 10-0 Wahine start to the game and a 37-27 halftime deficit by quickly asserting themselves in the third quarter.

Fourteen of Davis’ 16 points off UH turnovers came in the second half as the Aggies rallied for an emotional, physical senior night victory at University Credit Union Center.

“That's championship basketball, and right now we haven't figured out what we need to do to win a championship,” Beeman said of the matchup in a postgame Zoom call with Hawaii media. “So if we keep turning the ball over like we are, we're going to keep losing, and our tournament run is going to be real short. You know, you can get caught up in the senior night, in the matchup and all of that. Bottom line, you know that that was a game we should have one. This one does not feel good.”

UH remained a game up on second-place UC Irvine as the Anteaters were routed at Long Beach State on Saturday. The Wahine host the league’s two bottom teams, Cal State Bakersfield (2-27, 2-17) and Cal State Northridge (4-22, 2-15), on Thursday and Saturday, meaning they can potentially win at least a share of the Big West title on Thursday and the outright title on senior night.

UCD veteran Tova Sabel shot 5-for-17 from the field but she hit two critical fourth-quarter 3-pointers — one to tie the game with 4:17 left and one to take a four-point lead with under a minute to go.

“That's a problem,” Beeman said. “It's 40-minute ballgame, and we gave her two big 3s just because we lost sight of her. And that's just not acceptable to blow that kind of defensive assignment against that kind of player.”

UH responded from Sabel’s last 3 with a quick Lefotu basket. The Wahine elected to take a foul with a differential of more than five seconds between game and shot clock and a timeout remaining, but the gambit didn’t work. Sydney Burns made both free throws and Mazatlan Harris blocked Wahinekapu’s 3-point shot at the other end. UCD went 8-for-8 at the line on foul takes in the final minute.

Sabel finished with 18, center Megan Norris had 16 points and six rebounds, guard Nya Epps 14 points and guard Burns had 10 points, four assists and four steals for UCD, which will join UH in heading to the Mountain West in women’s basketball in 2026.

Guard Jovi Lefotu matched her career high of 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting to lead UH offensively. Lily Wahinekapu misfired on her first 11 shots and finished with 13 points on 4-for-17 shooting.

“The way that they defend us, the way that their bigs help they stay pretty hugged up, and so Jovi's ability to get some shots and get to the basket was big for us,” Beeman said.

Wing MeiLani McBee hit three 3-pointers in the first half but could not connect in the second and remained one triple shy of matching Amy Atwell for the program’s all-time 3-point record of 205.

UCD shot 56% and scored 47 points in the second half against UH’s vaunted defense. UH allowed its most points since yielding 76 to Portland in the season opener Nov. 7.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.