Before bidding farewell to its senior class in typically festive fashion, the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team extended another meaningful tradition.

The Rainbow Wahine won on senior night for the eighth straight year with a dominant 68-47 victory over Cal Poly on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

“To have this memory for them is tremendous,” UH coach Laura Beeman said.

With their ninth win in the last 10 games, the Rainbow Wahine (19-10, 12-4 Big West) secured the second seed in the Big West tournament, which comes with a double bye into the semifinals.

“Any time you can rest your legs and have to play fewer games to win the whole thing, that’s what you want,” Beeman said. “To have the bye is huge for us.”

The Wahine will open the tournament on Friday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., against the second-lowest remaining seed to survive the first two rounds. Big West regular-season champion UC Riverside (16-0) will be on the other side of the bracket as the tournament’s top seed.

Long Beach State finished in a tie with UH at 12-4, but will be the third seed due to UH’s sweep of the regular-season series with the 49ers.

“We heard Long Beach won and Coach Beeman drilled it in us that we need to win first and festivities after,” said senior Destiny King, who scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds in her final appearance at the Sheriff Center.

The Wahine are scheduled to depart for the tournament Monday morning, but the focus immediately following Saturday’s final buzzer was fixed squarely on the six senior-night honorees —King, Kalei Adolpho, Ashleigh Karaitiana, Brianna Kennedy, Connie Morris and Marissa Wimbley.

Those among the crowd of 1,645 who stuck around for the ceremony saw Karaitiana’s father perform a haka in her honor and a Native American dance after Wimbley was introduced for the final time. A Polynesian dance group paid tribute to King, who later joined the performance in one of those “only in Hawaii” moments that annually highlight senior night.

“I didn’t expect to dance, but it was amazing how many fans stayed and just being here and everybody coming here to support us,” King said.

Before the postgame party, the Wahine frolicked for much of the evening in the rout of Cal Poly (14-15, 7-9), which will be the sixth seed in the Big West tournament.

Hawaii’s defense held an opponent under 50 points for the second straight game and balanced scoring kept UH in control throughout the night. The Wahine held Cal Poly to single-digit scoring in each of the first three quarters to take command early and the Mustangs shot 23.7 percent from the field.

“We knew we had to come out with some defensive energy and I think we did,” Beeman said. “Our defense is really starting to come into its own and that’s what’s going to win us big ballgames.”

UH junior Briana Harris and sophomore Megan Huff led the Wahine with 11 points each. Morris also finished with nine points and Wimbley had eight, as did sophomore Sarah Toeaina. Karaitiana posted four points and three assists in her second senior night game.

The Wahine outscored Cal Poly 32-12 in the paint and and led by as many as 28.

Cal Poly hit a 3-pointer on the game’s opening possession, but found the bucket just four more times in the first half. UH held the Mustangs to 5-for-30 shooting and Cal Poly mustered just eight points in the first and second quarters. The Wahine offense dried up for much of the period and Cal Poly inched to within seven before UH broke away again with an 8-0 spurt to take a 31-16 lead into halftime.

The Wahine continued to pull away in a second half that served as a prelude to the postgame sendoff.

“These nights leave an imprint on your heart,” Beeman said. “I think it leaves an imprint on the hearts of the fans, the community, definitely on these girls and I know it does on me.”

Big West Women

Saturday

Hawaii 68, Cal Poly 47

UC Davis 76, UC Irvine 70

Long Beach State 79, CSUN 69

UC Riverside 69, Cal State Fullerton 45

End of Regular Season

Hawaii 68, Cal Poly 47

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

3-point goals — Cal Poly 5-17 (Anderson 2-3, Stahley 1-1, Lovely 1-3, Sanchez 1-3, D. Leaupepe 0-1, L. Leaupepe 0-1, Evans 0-2, Balbierz 0-3). Hawaii 1-7 (Huff 1-1, Harris 0-1, Lh. Salanoa 0-1, Crawford 0-2, Karaitiana 0-2). Steals — Cal Poly 8 (Stahley 4, Balbierz, Evans, D. Leaupepe, Lovely). Hawaii 5 (King 2, Harris, Lh. Salanoa, Toeaina). Blocked shots — Cal Poly 2 (Balbierz, L. Leaupepe). Hawaii 2 (Huff, Kennedy). Turnovers — Cal Poly 15 (L. Leaupepe 3, Balbierz 2, Fausey 2, D. Leaupepe 2, Lovely 2, Anderson, Grupalo, Nunnelley, Sanchez). Hawaii 20 (King 3, Harris 3, Crawford 2, Huff 2, Karaitiana 2, TEAM 2, Adolpho, Kennedy, Lh. Salanoa, Sampton, Toeaina, Wimbley). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Erick Thome, Rick Showers, Tim Tamashiro. A–1,645.