Santa Barbara, Calif.— The University of Hawai'i women's basketball team continued its hot stretch through the Big West Conference by winning its fifth consecutive game with a 63-51 victory on the road at UC Santa Barbara Saturday afternoon in the Thunderdome.
 
The Rainbow Wahine (13-10, 7-3) have won seven of their last eight games, and have won each of their last four by 10 or more points. The Gauchos (9-13, 4-6) have dropped four of their previous six contests.
 
Junior center Lauren Rewers provided the offensive spark UH needed in the first half as she tallied nine points in 16 minutes off the bench. The 'Bows' defense continues to be the best in the conference, and it showed in the opening 20 minutes, holding UCSB to 23 points, but most notably only three points and one field goal in the second quarter.
 
Trailing 20-16 after the first frame, UH outscored the Gauchos 10-3 in the second, taking a 26-23 lead into the half. Joining Rewers off the bench and contributing was senior guard Savannah Reier as she hit two big three-point buckets to swing the offensive momentum back to UH before halftime.
 
As UCSB battled back in the second half, the UH offense caught fire with senior guard Julissa Tago scoring 15 points through the final two quarters, keeping the Gauchos at bay. Rewers kept her hot hand hitting two more three-points in the second half, finishing with 16 points tying her season-high, and her first game of scoring double-digits since Dec. 6 at Oregon State.
 
Just like she had the nine previous games before, Tago notched another double-digit game with a team-high 21 points, hitting 8-of-11 from the floor, and a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. On top of her 10-game streak of double-digit scoring, Tago has now scored 20 plus points in five of those 10 games.
 
As a team, the 'Bows shot 47 percent from the field, while holding UCSB to 37 percent. It's the fifth time in the last six games UH has held opponents to under 40 percent shooting.
 
Next up, UH will head home for two games over the next two weeks, beginning first with CSUN on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. HT.