The play wasn’t drawn up to go to Ashleigh Karaitiana. But the University of Hawaii senior knew to stay ready.

Trailing UC Santa Barbara by two with 24 seconds left, the Rainbow Wahine came out of a timeout with a play designed for Destiny King to drive to the basket. But when the Gauchos defense collapsed into the lane, King fired a pass out to a waiting Karaitiana, who rattled in a 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining, and the Wahine pulled out a 63-62 Big West win at UCSB’s Thunderdome on Saturday in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“It wasn’t by design for (King) to dribble across the baseline in the middle of the paint and kick the ball out to Ashleigh,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview. “But it was there and she had her head up, and was very, very confident and found her other senior standing out there smiling at her.”

After Karaitiana’s shot fell through the net, the Wahine came up with one last stop and King secured the final rebound to seal a sweep of their road trip and their fourth straight victory.

UH improved to 14-9 overall and 7-3 in Big West play to move into a virtual tie for second place with idle Long Beach State (17-5, 6-2). The 49ers visit the Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday in the first game of a UH basketball doubleheader.

King led the Wahine with 17 points and eight rebounds and dished out five assists, the last going to Karaitiana for the game-winner.

“I give her all the credit in the world for this game because she stepped up and was a real leader for us,” Karaitiana said.

“During that drive, she drew four players and that’s what made me so open for that shot. … That was probably one of the best passes I’ve had in a long time, so credit goes to her. I didn’t have to reach for it or I didn’t have to jump to get out of my stance, so it was perfect.”

Karaitiana hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and finished with 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Center Kalei Adolpho also contributed 12 points and six rebounds off the bench and seniors accounted for 21 of UH’s final 23 points.

“When winning time comes you need to have people step up and the leadership has to happen and we’re getting it from our seniors,” Beeman said.

Beeman also credited a hot start from sophomore Sarah Toeaina (six points) and junior guard Briana Harris’ two 3-pointers for helping the Wahine build a lead early in the game.

UH opened up a 13-point lead in the second quarter and took a 30-24 advantage into halftime. UCSB jumped ahead with an 11-1 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to take a 45-40 lead. UH put together a 6-0 spurt and moved ahead 54-53 on Adolpho’s putback with 2:51 left.

The Wahine had inched out to a 60-57 lead when UCSB guard Makala Roper hit a 3 to tie the game with 48 seconds left.

On UH’s next possession, UCSB’s Chaya Durr poked the ball away from King and went in for a breakaway layup to give the Gauchos a 62-60 lead with 24 seconds left.

Karaitiana then knocked down her second 3-pointer of the period and Roper’s 3-point attempt just before the buzzer hit off the front of the rim.

Onome Jemerigbe led UCSB (8-15, 5-4) with 13 points and five assists and Je Zhe Newton added 12 points and 13 rebounds.

BIG WEST WOMEN

Saturday

Hawaii 63, UC Santa Barbara 62

UC Davis 63, Cal State Fullerton 59

Cal Poly 50, UC Irvine 38

UC Riverside 83, CSUN 76

Wednesday

Cal Poly at UC Davis

Thursday

Long Beach State at Hawaii, 5:30 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

UC Riverside at Cal State Fullerton

UC Santa Barbara at UC Irvine

HAWAII 63, UC SANTA BARBARA 62

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.

Halftime — Hawaii 30, UC Santa Barbara 24

3-point goals — Hawaii 4-11 (Harris 2-3, Karaitiana 2-3, Toeaina 0-1, Crawford 0-2, Wimbley 0-2). UC Santa Barbara 3-14 (Lopez 1-2, Miller 1-3, Roper 1-8, Ware 0-1). Steals — Hawaii 1 (Harris). UC Santa Barbara 9 (Durr 3, Jemerigbe 3, Lopez, Newton, Ware). Blocked shots — Hawaii 2 (Adolpho, Huff 4). UC Santa Barbara 4 (Newton 3, Durr). Turnovers — Hawaii 17 (Harris 4, Adolpho 2, Crawford 2, Karaitiana 2, Huff, King, Morris, La. Salanoa, Le. Salanoa, Toeaina, Wimbley). UC Santa Barbara 13 (Jemerigbe 4, Roper 4, Durr 2, Lopez, Newton, Ware). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Michael Price, Charles Gonzalez, Richard Waters. A—407.