After another disappointing shortcoming against Cal Poly, Hawaii coach Laura Beeman was forced to adjust her team’s regular-season goals.

UH didn’t complete a late rally and fell 62-60 to the first-place Mustangs in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Saturday afternoon, knocking the Rainbow Wahine (11-10, 5-4 Big West) three games behind Poly (14-8, 8-1) with seven games remaining before the conference tournament.

A double-bye afforded by a top-two finish could be difficult to attain.

"First or second place I think are going to be very tough for us to get a stranglehold on, so we’ve got to lock down that third or fourth (single-bye) spot if we can," Beeman said in a postgame phone interview. "We’re going to get matched up against either a (Cal State) Northridge or a Cal Poly in the Big West tournament at some point. It’s just (about) getting better.

"Trying to win one ballgame at a time, knowing we’ve got a couple more road trips ahead of us. But we’re not out of it. It’s just getting better for the Big West Conference tournament. That’s one of our goals at this point and we have to continue to work toward that."

The Wahine went 1-3 on their four-game, 11-day road trip, with the three losses coming by a combined seven points. Meanwhile, Cal Poly had extra preparation time at home during its single-game week.

UH scored the game’s first eight points and was up 16-7, and was still in good position down two at halftime. But the Wahine fell behind by 11 points on an Ariana Elegado 3-pointer with 8:29 to play.

The visitors responded with a 9-1 run to get within three, and forward Kamilah Jackson stuck a left-handed layup with 47 seconds left to get her team within one at 58-57.

Jackson blocked a layup attempt at the other end, but Cal Poly got the ball to Elegado on the inbounds play and she nailed a tough floater from the elbow to push the lead to three with 19 seconds left.

"If I had to sum it up, a phrase, they hit big shots and we didn’t," Beeman said.

UH had a 3-point attempt to tie from center Pua Kailiawa, but she was long on her attempt and Elegado collected the rebound and was fouled. The junior guard sank both foul shots with four seconds left to ice the victory. Destiny King hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer for the game’s final margin.

BIG WEST WOMEN

Saturday
Cal Poly 62, Hawaii 60
CS Northridge 76, CS Fullerton 54
UC Irvine 79, UC Davis 73
Long Beach State 65, UC Riverside 52

Thursday
UC Riverside at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Long Beach State at UC Santa Barbara
CS Northridge at Cal Poly
CS Fullerton at UC Davis

CAL POLY 62, HAWAII 60

RAINBOW WAHINE (11-10, 5-4 BIG WEST)

MUSTANGS (14-8, 8-1 BIG WEST)

Halftime — Cal Poly 31, Hawaii 29.
3-point goals — Hawaii 1-11 (King 1-1, Harris 0-1, Haydel 0-1, Karaitiana 0-1, Kuehu 0-1, Mason 0-2, Kailiawa 0-4). Cal Poly 5-17 (Elegado 3-8, Ale 1-3, Balbierz 1-5, Ofodu 0-1). Steals — Hawaii 4 (Jackson, Karaitiana, King, Kuehu). Cal Poly 6 (Ale 2, Balbierz, Elegado, Garza, Schlemer). Blocked shots — Hawaii 3 (Haydel, Jackson, Kuehu). Cal Poly 3 (Elegado, Garza, Ofodu). Technical foul — none. Officials — Victor Dunomes, Danielle Hernandez, Gary Horky. A — 1,441.