Hawaii’s drive to defend its Big West women’s basketball title begins on the road against the conference’s wins leader to date.

A bumpy nonconference run in the rear-view, the Rainbow Wahine open the conference schedule today at Long Beach State and carry with them two weighty titles — defending regular-season champion and preseason favorite.

But 13 games into the season, “I don’t think any of that matters,” UH coach Laura Beeman said.

“I think our opponents obviously see the bull’s eye on our back and they’re coming after us. It’s just going to be if we’re going to step up and meet that challenge.”

The Wahine (7-6) also take a 5-0 record on the mainland into today’s 5 p.m. Hawaii time matchup with the 49ers (11-3), the lone Big West team with double-digit wins through nonconference play. The road trip turns north for a matchup with UC Davis on Saturday.

The Wahine topped the preseason poll after claiming the Big West regular-season title at 14-2 last season. They closed the nonconference schedule with a dip last Saturday in a 64-54 home loss to Penn. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak which followed a four-game losing streak that included matchups with No. 2 South Carolina, No. 13 Texas A&M and No. 14 Arizona State.

“Playing against some of the best players in the country is always a great experience to have,” said UH senior Ashleigh Karaitiana, who is four points away from reaching 1,000 for her career. “It’s also something we can learn from. I’m hoping the team and myself all take something that we learned or that we need to work on from the preseason and implement that into the games this weekend.”

Coming out of last weekend’s loss to Penn, the Wahine will look to roll their fourth-quarter surge against the Quakers into the start of conference play. They fell behind early and cut a 14-point deficit to three in the final period before seeing the rally fall short.

“We can’t have three horrible quarters and expect the fourth quarter to be the one that’s going to get us to the promised land,” UH senior Destiny King said. “You have to start off the way we ended.”

The Wahine open the Big West season against a Long Beach State team on a four-game winning streak in a matchup of the conference’s toughest defenses to score against.

Although the Wahine have the on-paper designation as preseason favorite, Beeman sees UC Riverside (7-7) as the team to beat in the conference.

“I think right now Riverside is the true favorite in the conference. I think everybody else is clumped right in the middle,” said Beeman, 37-14 in the Big West in three seasons. “I don’t think we’re a true favorite right now, not going into conference.”

Following is a look at the Big West entering league play, listed according to the preseason poll.