A Big West regular-season championship is out of the question, but the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine can still attain the next-best thing going into the conference tournament.

A double-bye for next week’s tourney at Long Beach State and at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., is still in play for UH, though the Wahine need a little help.

Third-place UH needs to defeat UC Santa Barbara on Thursday’s senior night and win on a tough turnaround two nights later at Cal State Fullerton. In addition, they’ll need second-place Cal Poly to lose at UCSB on Saturday to leapfrog the Mustangs and claim the extra bye into the Big West semifinals.

That would afford UH extra time to rest forward Kamilah Jackson, one of four players who will be honored in senior festivities after Thursday night’s game. Jackson has missed four straight games with a sprained right foot and her status is questionable at best against the Gauchos.

Coach Laura Beeman is of two minds on the matter of tournament placement.

"I’m OK with 3 (and a single bye into the second round)," she said. "The double-bye (at No. 2) I think is tough. Yes, it would help in Mia’s situation. But I think it’s tough as a team to sit out, because we’re not coming home (after the Fullerton game). So to play sooner than later is better for us."

The other three seniors to be honored Thursday are Sydney Haydel, Pua Kailiawa and Diane Moore. Co-captain Shawna Kuehu will not be part of the ceremony, as she is petitioning for an additional season of eligibility in 2014-15.

The absence of Jackson over the past two weeks has been the running subplot of the Wahine and how well they’ve done regardless, going 3-1. Ball movement has been crisp and role players such as Kailiawa and Morgan Mason have pieced together big nights, knowing their contributions are necessary for a victory.

Kuehu, Kailiawa and Mason all went for career-best point totals in last week’s 82-71 home win over Long Beach State. Kuehu scored 28 and Kailiawa had her first career double-double.

"You know, we’ve definitely been playing for Mia these past few games," Haydel said. "Players have been stepping up rebounding, scoring, all areas of their game so I think we’ll continue to do that going into these next two games of conference."

An appearance on the court by Jackson on Thursday beyond perhaps a token entrance to the game for crowd recognition would be surprising given Beeman’s talk of caution saving her for the most meaningful game or games of the season next week.

The success of Jackson’s teammates has made things easier for the Wahine great to watch from the sidelines.

"I think Morgan has done a great job of just stepping up her production, taking care of the ball, running her offense," Jackson said. "Just everybody’s doing a great job of stepping it up."

UH won 63-60 at UCSB a month ago with 15 points from Kuehu and 14 from Jackson. The Gauchos and guard Nicole Nesbit (15.6 ppg) are fighting to stay out of last place, which would mean missing the tournament.