The Hawaii women’s basketball team again dug itself a hole on the road.

And again, the Rainbow Wahine clawed right back out.

UH overcame a 12-0 deficit to start the game and improved to 2-0 on its three-game road trip with a 61-54 win against Long Beach State on Thursday at The Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.

Junior wing Shawna Kuehu led a strong bench effort in helping the second-place Rainbow Wahine (11-10, 7-3 BWC) improve to 4-2 on the road in league play. She tied her career high of 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.

Cal Poly defeated first-place Pacific 62-59 on Thursday, keeping the Wahine tied with the Mustangs in second but moving both those teams within a game of the Tigers.

UH wraps up its road trip on Saturday at last-place UC Irvine (5-17, 1-9).

"Nothing could have prepared us for the Big West tournament more than this 10-day road trip," coach Laura Beeman said in a postgame phone interview. "We are far from peaking. We still have a lot of room to grow. We’re going to have to be on our game (at UCI)."

Senior point guard Monica DeAngelis had 13 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:44 left, and freshman Destiny King scored 12 in front of her hometown crowd.

Top scorer Kamilah Martin was quiet offensively but grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds as UH dominated the backboards 49-28.

The Wahine overcame a 9-0 hole to open up at Cal State Northridge last Saturday and prevailed 65-53 to start off the 10-day road trip.

"We’re focused, we’re ready to go, so I’m not sure about the slow starts. … It’s going to bite us in the butt if we’re not careful.

"But defensively, we were able to lock in immediately."

LBSU was held to 1-for-24 3-point shooting in a 65-57 loss to UH at the Stan Sheriff Center on Jan. 13. The 49ers didn’t fare much better in this one, going 3-for-18.

Forward Ella Clark led The Beach with 17 points and seven rebounds. No one else scored more than nine.