Hawaii coach Laura Beeman didn’t need to put any extra emphasis on defense going into the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s matchup with UC Santa Barbara on Thursday.

The energy the Rainbow Wahine poured into their 59-45 win was “just what we do, and we do it well,” Beeman said.

UH’s defensive effort fueled a second-half surge that propelled the Rainbow Wahine to their eighth win in their past nine games before a crowd of 784 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Leading by four with 3:46 left in the third quarter, the Rainbow Wahine (18-10, 11-4 Big West) broke away with a 17-4 run and maintained control of second place in the conference standings.

The Rainbow Wahine enter Saturday’s senior night game against Cal Poly tied with Long Beach State. But UH’s season sweep of the 49ers gives the Wahine the tiebreaker edge for second place and a double bye in next week’s Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif.

UH guard Briana Harris scored a game-high 15 points off the bench. Senior Destiny King added 13 points and nine rebounds and Ashleigh Karaitiana scored all eight of her points in the second half.

The Wahine pestered UCSB into 25 percent shooting from the field, held the Gauchos 17 points below their scoring average for the season and limited an opponent to 50 points or fewer for the fifth time in the past eight games.

“Teams know what they’re going to get from us defensively,” Beeman said. “So thank goodness our defense showed up because offensively we struggled for a while.

“Then we had a really good eight minutes or so where Destiny and Bri had great pace and composure.”

When called into the game, Harris repeatedly attacked the basket for scores or drew fouls and went 6-for-9 from the free-throw line.

“I think that’s a part of my game that has grown this year,” Harris said. “We were kind of missing that in the beginning, that’s when I come into the game and try to attack as much as I can.”

Coco Miller scored UCSB’s first six points and led the Gauchos (11-19, 8-8) with 13 points.

UH escaped UCSB’s Thunderdome with a 63-62 win on Feb. 6 and the teams appeared headed for another tight finish for most the first three quarters. But after a bit of a ragged start offensively, the Wahine shot 55 percent in the second half to pull away.

UH held UCSB without a field goal over the last 5:47 of the first half and led 26-21 at the break. The Gauchos then opened the second half with a 6-0 run to briefly take the lead, but UH answered with a 9-2 spurt, with Karaitiana hitting the game’s first 3-pointer with 4:04 left in the period.

The Wahine ended the quarter with a 9-0 run and extended the lead to 52-35 in the fourth quarter when Harris drained a 3 from the corner with 6:39 left.

UCSB went on an 8-0 run midway through the period, but UH scored the next six points to maintain control.

“When we get stops it’s exciting,” King said. “I think our energy was the deal breaker in the second half with everyone being on the same page and being focused.”

BIG WEST WOMEN

Thursday

Hawaii 59, UC Santa Barbara 45

UC Riverside 84, UC Irvine 72

Long Beach State 74, UC Davis 64

CSUN 82, Cal State Fullerton 71

Saturday

Cal Poly at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

UC Davis at UC Irvine

Long Beach State at CSUN

Cal State Fullerton at UC Riverside

End of Regular Season

Hawaii 59, UC Santa Barbara 45

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

3-point goals — UC Santa Barbara 1-12 (Miller 1-6, Durr 0-1, Jemerigbe 0-1, Lopez 0-1, Ware 0-3). Hawaii 3-12 (Karaitiana 2-5, Harris 1-3, Crawford 0-1, Toeaina 0-1, Wimbley 0-2). Steals — UC Santa Barbara 8 (Durr 3, Jemerigbe 2, Miller 2, Ware). Hawaii 4 (King 3, Karaitiana). Blocked shots — UC Santa Barbara none. Hawaii 2 (Huff 2). Turnovers — UC Santa Barbara 15 (Morrison 3, Farris 2, Jemerigbe 2, Newton 2, Wright 2, Durr, Miller, Roper, TEAM). Hawaii 19 (Adolpho 4, Toeaina 4, Crawford 3, King 3, Wimbley 2, Karaitiana, Salanoa, TEAM). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Erick Thome, Rick Showers, Daniel Coda. A–784.