It’s official: The Rainbow Wahine are rolling.

Ashleigh Karaitiana scored 17 points, Kamilah Martin added 14 and the Hawaii women’s basketball team seized second place in the Big West from Cal Poly with a 61-43 defeat of the Mustangs on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Laura Beeman’s resurgent squad started strong — in a flash, the Wahine were up 21-4 — and led by double digits the rest of the way. UH evened its overall record up at 9-9 and improved to 5-2 in league play by holding the Mustangs (10-7, 4-2) to their lowest offensive output of the season.

The Wahine are off to their best start to league play in a decade.

"I think a lot of people are going to think it’s a statement game," said Beeman, the first-year coach. "For us, it was just a game we knew we had to win. … I’m not into statement games. I’m into ‘let’s go out and do what we do.’ "

What they did Thursday was lock down the second-highest scoring team in the league. The Mustangs shot 27.6 percent overall and made just six field goals in the second half, killing their comeback chances from a 15-point halftime deficit.

UH will look to stay unbeaten at home in BWC play (3-0) on Saturday against UC Santa Barbara (7-11, 3-3) at 7 p.m.

"We always talk about protecting our home floor," said Martin, who shot 5-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 at the line. "I think that’s what we did tonight and we’re going to continue to … because we gotta take advantage of the home games. They’re going to be harder on the road, and you have to win all that you can."

UH got strong bench play, as well. Shawna Kuehu scored eight with five boards and a career-high-tying four blocks. Vicky Tagalicod added eight points and a team-high four assists.

A crowd of 453 had plenty to cheer about early. The Mustangs shot 1-for-10 to open the game and in mere moments, the Wahine led by 17 against a team that arrived on a four-game winning streak.

UH made 12 of its first 18 field goals and finished the first half shooting 55.2 percent, good for a 39-24 lead at the break.

Cal Poly had a chance to get it to within single digits early in the second half, but missed three straight free throws once it drew to within 41-30.

Karaitiana scored four baskets during a 10-0 run to put the game all but out of reach at 57-34 with 5:41 to play. The Wahine showed off some nifty passing on broken plays during that span.

"Like Coach said, we work hard in practice going through our plays, but she’s also stated, at the end of the day we just have to play basketball," said Karaitiana, a redshirt freshman. "I think that’s what we did."

With 14 points and five rebounds, Martin moved into 16th in UH career scoring at 1,016, passing Val Agee (1,005). She moved into a tie with Tanya Smith for third on the career rebounding chart at 816.

Martin was given a tribute before the game for becoming the program’s 17th 1,000-point scorer in a win last week at UC Davis.

Dennis Agena and Mike Taylor of Kalakaua Basketball Clinic were the game’s honorary captains before tipoff. Agena was on the first Wahine basketball coaching staff as an assistant for Patsy Dung.