Hawaii opened its conference schedule with a breakthrough victory at UC Davis on Thursday.

Guard Lily Wahinekapu led four UH players in double figures with 17 points and the Rainbow Wahine basketball team began defense of its Big West regular-season title with a 70-62 win over the host Aggies in Davis, Calif.

Wahinekapu hit three 3-pointers and forward Kallin Spiller finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Guard Daejah Phillips and forward Nnenna Orji added 10 points each off the bench for the Wahine (3-7, 1-0), who went 20-for-24 from the free-throw line and hit all 11 of their attempts in the fourth quarter.

UH left University Credit Union Center (formerly known as The Pavilion) with a victory for the first time since Jan. 22, 2015. The Rainbow Wahine hadn’t visited Davis since January 2020 and none of the players on the current roster played in the previous five losses in the arena.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve won at Davis — that’s the first thing — this is a hard trip,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview, listing her takeaways from the conference opener.

With the Wahine coming off a 2-7 nonconference schedule, “obviously we need confidence and wins … and then anytime you can get a win on the road in conference, it’s huge. So we kind of hit the trifecta.”

The Wahine committed four turnovers in the first quarter, then gave the ball away just five more times over the next 30 minutes and allowed seven points off of turnovers in the game.

UH trailed by 13 in the first quarter and went on the attack as the game progressed. Phillips drew four fouls, primarily on drives, and went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line. Guard Olivia Davies finished 5-for-5 and Wahinekapu hit all four of her attempts.

“We were playing real soft (in the first quarter). We were really passive with the ball in passing, ball-handling, getting to the basket the entire first half,” Beeman said. “That was a great adjustment the girls made, to be stronger with the ball and stronger on drives.”

Victoria Baker led UC Davis (4-7, 0-1) with 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting and Tova Sabel added 15 with three 3-pointers. Guard Evanne Turner, the Big West’s leading scorer entering the game at 16.9 points per game, finished with nine points on 3-for-13 shooting before fouling out in the final seconds.

UH will take a 41⁄2 hour bus ride to San Luis Obispo, Calif., and conclude its road trip at Cal Poly at noon on Saturday. The Mustangs (3-6) opened conference play with a 65-55 loss at Cal State Northridge on Thursday.

Following the Christmas break, both teams got out to a cold start before Sabel, the reigning conference player of the week, highlighted a 10-0 UC Davis run with a 3-pointer followed by a layup. She connected on another 3-pointer to trigger an eight-point surge and the Aggies led 23-12 at the end of the opening period.

UH answered with a 12-0 surge to open the second quarter and took its first lead at 24-23 on Jacque David’s post bucket.

“Basketball’s a game of momentum, and it shifts, and you want to be able to take the punches and punch back harder,” Beeman said.

UC Davis took a 35-32 lead into halftime but missed its first 10 shots of the third quarter and UH capitalized with a 15-0 run capped by Orji’s driving layup.

Baker broke UC Davis’ cold spell by banking in a jumper in the lane and added another driving bucket and a 3-pointer in a 14-2 run bridging the quarter break to tie the game at 49-49.

UH went on the attack with Phillips and Wahinekapu drawing fouls on drives and connecting on four free throws to give UH the lead. UC Davis cut a six-point deficit to two when Burns converted a three-point play after her drive. But Wahinekapu scored on a backdoor layup off a feed from David, who finished with eight points and three assists, to give UH a 63-59 lead with 41.9 seconds left.

“That was a set that we called from the bench,” Beeman said. “We didn’t think that was what was going to be open, but Jacque read the checkdowns correctly and Lily set that up beautifully.”

Davies and Phillips hit four free throws to maintain the cushion and punctuated the win when Phillips found Spiller.