Cal Poly’s towering center, Molly Schlemer, was big all game. But the 6-foot-5 Schlemer came up huge when it mattered most.

Her layup on a feed from guard Ariana Elegado with eight seconds left sealed a 47-43 win over the Hawaii women’s basketball team on Saturday at Mott Arena in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

The costly defeat bumped the Rainbow Wahine (14-12, 10-5 Big West) from a tie for first to third place with three regular-season home games remaining. Cal Poly (16-9, 10-4) moved up to second place, while Pacific (21-6, 11-4) maintained its hold on first by defeating UC Riverside.

UH was left to rue an abysmal first half — 4-for-21 shooting with 11 turnovers — which led to a 13-point halftime hole. It ultimately cost Laura Beeman’s team a chance to sweep the Mustangs; UH won handily, 61-43, in Honolulu exactly a month ago.

Forty-three points was one off the team season low, which occurred twice, and was seven points fewer than the lowest previous mark in Big West play.

Beeman was disappointed with the loss, but reiterated in a postgame phone interview that her team’s goal was to win the Big West tournament.

"You know, we just didn’t execute," Beeman said. "Defensively, we were on point. … We missed too many shots in the paint. You can’t win ballgames missing layups."

Junior forward Kamilah Martin led UH with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Junior wing Shawna Kuehu added 10 points off the bench.

The Wahine clawed back and went up for the first time at 39-38 on free throws by Sydney Haydel, capping an 11-0 run. The teams traded the lead from there. Senior center Stephanie Ricketts, who missed UH’s 54-51 win at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday because of schoolwork, flew up Saturday morning. Ricketts made two free throws for a 43-42 UH lead with 2:29 to play.

But Elegado was money on a deep 3-pointer with less than two minutes left, and UH failed on three chances to tie the score, first with a Destiny King turnover and then on misses by Martin and Monica DeAngelis on the same possession.

Schlemer, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds, put in the dagger basket after Elegado penetrated the paint and freed her up.

"She did her job and more," Beeman said of Schlemer. "She was a little bit of a handful, for sure."

UH dribbled up and called timeout for a last-second shot, but the game was essentially over at that point.

UH was held without a 3-pointer, going 0-for-7. A 17-for-22 outing at the free-throw line (77 percent) was not enough to make up for the woes from the field.

Schlemer had eight points as Cal Poly built a 10-2 lead in the opening minutes.