RIVERSIDE, Calif. >> A 10-0 start and a 14-point lead early in the second quarter proved insufficient to give Hawaii Pacific the championship of the PacWest Conference women’s basketball tournament.

The second-seeded Sharks needed Gabriella Fotu’s late heroics, timely free-throw shooting and stifling defense in the final three minutes to repel fifth-seeded Point Loma, 77-71, in Saturday’s final at Cal Baptist’s Events Center.

HPU (26-3), which shared the regular-season championship with Azusa Pacific, began the week ranked fourth in the West Region by the NCAA and 22nd nationally by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The Sharks end it by winning their first PacWest tournament championship since 2015 and qualifying for the NCAA Division II West Regional for the second consecutive year.

“We’ve worked all year for this moment,” said HPU forward Jessi Reeves, who had game highs of 23 points and four assists. “We put ourselves through crazy beach workouts, crazy track workouts. We’ve put (our) coach through many heart attacks this year throughout so many games. But we’ve come out on top and we couldn’t be happier.”

Teammate Spencer Gray was named the tournament’s most outstanding player after amassing 18 points and seven rebounds. Fotu and Samantha Lambrigtsen each scored 12 points, with Lambrigtsen grabbing a team-high nine rebounds, while Alysha Marcucci contributed eight points and joined Gray and Reeves on the all-tournament team.

HPU coach Reid Takatsuka viewed Saturday’s win as a microcosm of the Sharks’ season.

“We’ll make good runs and we get into a nice rhythm, then the other team makes a push, and we kind of grab control toward the latter part of the game” Takatsuka said. “That’s kind of how our team has played all year. I’m used to it by now. I wish it was just 40 minutes of flow but it doesn’t work that way.”

The Sharks relied on their defense to generate 3 minutes, 10 seconds of flow and build a 10-0 advantage. HPU forced the Sea Lions (19-11) to commit turnovers on six of seven possessions, and scored eight points from those turnovers. Reeves made two of the Sharks’ three steals during that spree.

Not even a 20-minute delay caused by a malfunctioning shot clock defused HPU, which held an 8-0 lead when the breakdown took place.

“Facing that is nothing,” Gray said. “We don’t always have the top-of-the-line stuff. Everything’s not always set up for us. We’re used to it.”

Point Loma narrowed its deficit to 16-10 before the Sharks began an 8-0 spurt that extended the margin to 24-10 with 8:43 left before halftime. But the Sea Lions remained unfazed.

“I knew we were going to be able to come back,” said Point Loma’s Roya Rustamzada, the PacWest’s co-player of the year. “There’s nothing that these girls can’t do. We always continue to fight, regardless of what the score is.”

The Sea Lions finished the first half with a 10-0 blitz, then controlled most of the fourth quarter. A defense anchored by 6-foot-3 freshman Grace Brady — who began the game ranked 10th nationally with 3.1 blocks per game — held HPU to just six points and no baskets for 6:22.

“It makes a big difference when Grace is in the game,” Point Loma coach Lisa Faulkner said. “She’s there just to be a presence and block shots. But we also mixed some things up. We went with a smaller lineup for a good portion of time, which allowed us to go into our trapping zone press. We changed tempo and I think that got them back on their heels.”

Meanwhile, the Sea Lions took their biggest lead of the game with 3:03 to play. Cara Liggins made a lay-in, got fouled by Gray in the process and converted the ensuing free throw to give Point Loma a 68-64 advantage.

Then Fotu made her presence known.

The junior converted a 3-point shot with 2:48 remaining to draw HPU within one point. Then Fotu forced a jump ball that enabled the Sharks to regain possession with 2:25 left. Twelve seconds later, she made another 3-point shot to put the Sharks ahead 70-68.

“That ended up being the difference in the game,” Faulkner said of Fotu’s 3-pointers.

HPU’s defense reinforced those baskets’ significance. The Sea Lions would not score again until Yuendie Guridi made a 3-point basket with 3.1 seconds to play. Before Guridi scored, the Sharks built a 77-68 lead by making seven of eight foul shots.

“Our team stayed calm,” Reeves said regarding the late deficit. “We stayed confident. We’re used to close games so we knew how to handle it. We just had to rely on our defense; we knew we’d take care of it on offense.”

Takatsuka believed the Sharks’ defensive focus proved pivotal.

“It was a mind-set,” he said. “When we came into the huddles, all we talked about was defense. We didn’t talk about anything on offense. We just focused on getting stops. We just felt like if we got a stop, it would put us in a situation where we could get possession and possibly score.”