Bring on Pacific.

The Hawaii women’s basketball team cleared the way for a shot at the Tigers — and a share of first place in the Big West Conference — with a 59-48 defeat of UC Davis on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 545 weathered some offensive lulls by UH as the second-place Rainbow Wahine (12-11, 8-4 Big West) rebounded from a loss at last-place UC Irvine last Saturday.

Laura Beeman’s team enjoyed a 20-point halftime lead and didn’t panic when it went without a point for the first four minutes of the second half, allowing Davis to creep a little closer. The Aggies never got within single digits, though.

League-leader Pacific (19-5, 9-3) defeated Cal State Northridge 74-56 earlier Thursday, keeping the Tigers a game ahead of the Wahine going into Saturday’s showdown at the Sheriff. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

"I want to play Pacific. I don’t care if they’re winning or losing," Beeman said. "I know these girls want to play Pacific. We feel like when we were in Stockton (Calif.) last time, we shot ourselves in the foot with our (27) turnovers and not defending the 3 like we were supposed to.

"I want that pressure. These guys want that pressure. I think we’re ready to play."

Senior point guard Monica DeAngelis fought through an illness on Thursday to score a game-high 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 4-for-9 on 3s. She was one point off her career high.

Junior forward Kamilah Martin did most of her damage in the first half in earning her ninth double-double of the season, with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Stephanie Ricketts and Destiny King combined for 15 points off the bench.

With Thursday’s win in the bag, DeAngelis too was anxiously looking ahead to Saturday.

"Very excited. We can’t wait," she said. "We’re chomping at the bit. We just know we have to come in here and fix the things we didn’t do well the last time and make it a game."

UH turned to its defense to make up for shaky offensive production in this one. UCD was held to 31.8 percent shooting — including 1-for-8 from long range — and had just three assists against 19 turnovers.

UH was dominant in all phases in the first half in building a 34-14 lead.

"I felt like for about 36 minutes we played very, very good defense," Beeman said. "Defense has always been what we rest our hat on.

"We knew we had to defend the 3-point line and we did."

Once UCD (10-13, 5-7) got to within 16 points with 16 minutes to play, Vicky Tagalicod ended the drought with a 10-foot bank shot.

Sydnee Fipps put in a layup to bring the Aggies within 49-36, but Ricketts scored inside and UH built the lead back to 19.

The Aggies closed the gap late with an 8-0 spurt, but by then it was too late.

The Wahine got 14 solid minutes from Ricketts, a converted softball standout. The center scored a personal best on 3-for-3 shooting. Beeman said she gave Ricketts more run because the Aggies were frustrating Martin inside.

Fipps scored 18 points to lead the Aggies.