It took nearly eight minutes for Hawaii’s first point to go on the board, and a little longer for the first field goal to finally drop.

But once the Rainbow Wahine basketball team found its stride … wow.

After being blanked for most of the first quarter, the Wahine blitzed UC Davis over the next two periods and claimed sole possession of second place in the Big West with a 70-50 win on Thursday before a crowd of 891 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Wahine (16-9, 9-3 Big West) missed their first 13 shots and UC Davis (15-10, 8-4) raced out to a 13-0 lead to start the game. Trailing 17-6 after the first period, the Wahine outscored the Aggies 46-16 over the second and third quarters on their way to their sixth straight victory.

“It was a fun game tonight, that’s all I can say,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “The girls played with great energy, they never lost confidence in what we do and it was good to be able to add some different things defensively and see us execute it and it really got our offense going.”

After an 0-for-5 start from the field, UH senior Destiny King went 6-for-8 the rest of the way and posted her first double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Sophomore guard Sarah Toeaina matched King for team-high honors with 13 points and senior Ashleigh Karaitiana contributed 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.

UH recovered from a 2-for-16 first quarter to shoot nearly 46 percent over the next three periods and outrebounded UC Davis 42-30, including 17 offensive boards.

“I think that’s always an emphasis in our games,” King said. “We should be the better rebounding team.

“We have a lot of weapons. …Today it was our posts box out and the guards go in and grab rebounds.”

Freshman forward Morgan Bertsch led UC Davis with a game-high 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field. But the Aggies’ top two scorers entering the night, guard Pele Gianotti and center Alyson Doherty, combined for just seven between them.

The Bertsch-Doherty combo dominated the fourth quarter in the post in UC Davis’ 60-58 win on Jan. 9 and the Aggies outrebounded UH 35-28 that afternoon. While Bertsch represented the bulk of the Aggies offense on Thursday, Doherty, who scored 16 points in the first meeting, went 2-for-8 from the field before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.

“They’re a very, very good team and we really got them out of rhythm,” Beeman said. “That is a tribute to what the posts did individually and guards coming off and doubling and just having great rotations.

“I don’t think they really got their offense clicking and chemistry because they didn’t know where we were coming from. I didn’t know where we were coming from sometimes.”

The teams arrived at the arena tied for second behind league leader UC Riverside (11-0), and UC Davis broke away early by hitting seven of their first nine shots while UH misfired.

Senior guard Marissa Wimbley sparked a 9-0 UH run to open the second quarter with a 3-pointer. She later grabbed a rebound, drove upcourt and pulled up for a jumper to cut the deficit to 17-13, prompting a UC Davis timeout.

King scored UH’s final six points of the half, giving UH a 27-26 lead it took into halftime. The Wahine opened the third quarter with a 12-0 run to take command. They outscored the Aggies 25-7 in the period and finished off a lopsided win.

“As a team we feed off of Destiny,” Toeaina said. “Right after the half, Destiny said, ‘let’s pick it up where we left it off.’ So we made it a point to do that for our seniors and we just had fun out there playing basketball.”

The Wahine have the rest of the week off before heading on the road next week to take on Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside.

BIG WEST WOMEN

Thursday

Hawaii 70, UC Davis 50 UC Riverside 83, Long Beach State 58

UC Santa Barbara 70, CSUN 58

Cal Poly 63, Cal State Fullerton 57

Saturday

Long Beach State at UC Santa Barbara

CS Fullerton at UC Irvine

Cal Poly at CSUN

UC Riverside at UC Davis

Wednesday

Long Beach State at Cal Poly

UC Riverside at CSUN

Thursday, Feb. 25

Hawaii at Cal State Fullerton, 5 p.m. HST

UC Irvine at UC Santa Barbara

Hawaii 70, UC Davis 50

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 Davis 6-18 (Marfone 2-2, Ko. Eaton 2-6, Ka. Eaton 1-1, Gianotti 1-3, Nafekh 0-1, Johnson 0-2, Nagel 0-3). Hawaii 5-17 (Karaitiana 2-6, Toeaina 1-1, Wimbley 1-3, Harris 1-5, Adolpho 0-1, Crawford 0-1). Steals — UC Davis 4 (Bertsch, Ko. Eaton, Gianotti, Nafekh). Hawaii 7 (King 3, Adolpho, Huff, Karaitiana, Wimbley). Blocked shots — UC Davis 5 (Bertsch 4, Doherty). Hawaii 2 (Adolpho, Huff). Turnovers — UC Davis 18 (Bertsch 4, Doherty 3, Ko. Eaton 3, Gianott 3, Johnson 2, Nafekh 2, Marfone). Hawaii 10 (King 3, Harris 2, Adolpho, Huff, Karaitiana, Sampton, Toeaina). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Charles Gonzalez, Tyler Trimble, Ethan Kahoano. A—891