Hawaii couldn’t keep pace with the Big West’s top shooting team and fell to 0-2 in conference play with a 70-55 loss to UC Davis on Saturday in Davis, Calif.

UC Davis forward Morgan Bertsch scored 17 of her 24 points in the first half and the Aggies pulled away from the Rainbow Wahine in the third quarter in a rematch of last season’s Big West tournament championship game.

Bertsch, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, connected on nine of 15 shots from the field, grabbed eight rebounds and the Aggies (11-4, 2-0 BWC) outscored UH 34-16 in the paint. UCD guard Rachel Nagel added 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

“She’s a handful,” UH coach Laura Beeman said of Bertsch in a postgame phone interview. “She’s very skilled, she works incredibly hard. … She was allowed to get touches too easy and then it was just very difficult for us to stay in front of her once she got the ball.”

UH guard Sarah Toeaina led the Rainbow Wahine (4-10) with 13 points, going 3-for-13 from the field and 7-for-10 from the free-throw line, and tied for team-high honors with seven rebounds. Guard Olivia Crawford hit three of UH’s six 3-pointers and finished with 11 points.

The Wahine face Cal State Fullerton in their Big West home opener on Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH made its first two shots on Saturday and then went 6-for-31 over the remainder of the first half and closed at 29.5 percent for the game. UC Davis entered the game leading the Big West in scoring and field-goal percentage and shot 44.3 percent despite a 2-for-11 start.

“We had some of the same exact looks, wide open, and just couldn’t put it in the hole,” Beeman said. “We missed a lot of layups tonight … and that kind of dug us that hole.”