A five-game road swing looked bad on paper. Reality was even worse.

Utah State defeated the Hawaii women’s basketball team 52-41 last night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah, sending the Rainbow Wahine to their worst start in Western Athletic Conference play.

The last-place Wahine (6-14 overall) fell to 0-7 in the WAC and lost their eighth straight game. In the finale of a brutally challenging stretch of five straight games on the mainland, UH was held to a season low in points and dropped its 17th straight WAC road contest going back to 2008-09.

Second-year UH coach Dana Takahara-Dias is grateful her team returns to the islands for a three-game homestand, starting Monday against Nevada (13-5, 2-3).

"The only way to get back on track is to get a win for us," Takahara-Dias said. "We’re very grateful to be home for three games … getting back into routine. This is a much-needed change for us. Playing five games on the road in a row was tough, but it’s not an excuse."

Despite missing starting forwards Kamilah Jackson and Breanna Arbuckle for a one-game suspension for a violation of team rules, UH shot 50 percent (10-for-20) in the first half and led 21-17 at halftime.

But the shorthanded Wahine couldn’t sustain that effort, shooting 19.2 percent in the second half. Conversely, USU (9-10, 3-3) went from shooting 24.1 percent in the first half to 40.6 percent in the second.

"The zone got to us after a while, the trap and the pressure," Takahara-Dias said. "We were unable to convert some of the offensive opportunities into scoring. On the other side of the coin, we were not consistent on the defensive end, giving up baskets uncontested."