Hawaii took command in the second half of Saturday’s game at Cal Poly and the Rainbow Wahine will enter the final week of the regular season in control of their Big West title hopes.

UH guard Daejah Phillips scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the third quarter and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team ran away to a 73-49 rout of the Mustangs at the Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Phillips went 9-for-10 from the field in the game, including a 6-for-6 performance in the third quarter, and the Wahine (15-9, 11-3 Big West) held Cal Poly to 15 points in the second half to earn their fifth straight road win and remain in first place in the Big West.

UH held a 39-37 lead with 7:40 left in the third quarter when Phillips accounted for 11 points in a 14–0 Wahine run. The freshman opened the road trip by scoring 19 points in a win at CSU Bakersfield on Thursday and went 18-for-23 from the field for the week.

“The great thing about Daejah is she’s always been able to get to the basket, she can hit a 3, and now she’s finding her mid-range game,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “She was tremendous in the second half.”

With its eighth win in the past nine games, UH maintained the conference lead based on winning percentage at .786, just ahead of UC Irvine (16-10, 12-4, .750). The Anteaters broke a tie for second place with a 70-47 win at Long Beach State on Saturday.

The Wahine close the regular season with a homestand that starts Thursday against Cal State Northridge at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The Wahine will face UC Santa Barbara on Saturday on senior night.

“That’s where you always want to be,” Beeman said of the team’s position entering the final week of the regular season. “But we still have two huge games at home and this is a big week with it being senior week and getting ready for the (Big West) tournament.

“There’s a lot of excitement and we have to keep our focus. This group is on a mission and we don’t want to screw this up now because of a lack of focus or losing sight of the goal. I don’t think that happens with these guys.”

With two guards out of action on Saturday — Olivia Davies and Nae Nae Calhoun — and leading scorer Amy Atwell limited by foul trouble for much of the first half, the Wahine went into halftime with a 37-34 lead over the last-place Mustangs.

UH then went 16-for-31 from the field in the second half to Cal Poly’s 6-for-29 to break away to their widest margin of victory of the season.

“We had some crazy lineups (in the first half) and we had to work through some things,” Beeman said. “Once we got the focus and (got) the frustration out of them, we saw a very different team in the second half and it was fun to see.

“Just really proud of this group for their resilience.”

Atwell drained a 3-pointer during the decisive third-quarter surge that pushed the UH lead to 49-37 and finished with 13 points. Forward Kallin Spiller scored nine of her 13 points in the first half while the Wahine searched for their rhythm.

The Wahine held Cal Poly to 31% shooting and converted 29 points off of Cal Poly turnovers, including 17 in the second half.

“For a long time this team was all about offense, and they’re seeing now that great defense will only generate better offense,” Beeman said.

Maddie Vick led Cal Poly (3-19, 2-11) with 14 points and Julia Nielacna added 11.