A quick start and a strong finish propelled the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team to a 67-55 road win at Long Beach State on Thursday to open the defense of its Big West regular-season title.

After the Rainbow Wahine built a 15-point lead in the second quarter, the 49ers closed to within one on two occasions in the second half. But seniors Destiny King and Ashleigh Karaitiana sparked Wahine runs to cut off the LBSU rallies and UH never trailed while improving to 6-0 on the mainland with the victory at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.

“That’s what you want from your seniors,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a phone interview. “Defensively we made them take some tough shots and we got back on the boards.”

UH sophomore Sarah Toeaina led UH (8-6, 1-0 BWC) with 14 points, King finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in her final game in her hometown and senior center Kalei Adolpho added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Karaitiana contributed seven points to go over 1,000 for her career and seven UH players had at least six points against an LBSU defense that entered the game surrendering a league-low 55 points per game.

The Wahine shot 42 percent from the field and outrebounded LBSU 52-29, grabbing 20 offensive boards leading to 18 second-chance points.

“That gave us the opportunities that we needed, the second-chance points we needed and it kept them from having possessions,” Beeman said. “We definitely did a good a job on the boards and we have to continue to do that.”

Long Beach State (11-4, 0-1) shot 34 percent overall and went 8-for-27 from the field in the second half. Raven Benton led LBSU with 23 points, finishing 11-for-14 from the free-throw line, before fouling out late in the game.

Coming out of a home loss to Pennsylvania last Saturday, Beeman said prior to the trip she wasn’t sure which UH team would show up for the conference opener. The Wahine answered immediately by running out to a 7-0 lead to force LBSU to take an early timeout.

“We definitely came out ready to play, had some focus, definitely had energy,” Beeman said. “Definitely a much different team than we saw last Saturday.”

UH led 35-30 at halftime and Long Beach State closed to within a point in the third and fourth quarters with Benton leading the comeback.

“We did get up on them, but on their court, opening conference, the rivalry that we have, we knew they were going to punch back and they did,” Beeman said.

After Benton hit two free throws to cut UH’s lead to 47-46 early in the fourth quarter, Karaitiana scored on a drive to become the 19th member of UH’s 1,000-point club.

King then hit a jumper, Adolpho scored off an assist from Karaitiana and Toeaina’s 3-pointer capped an 11-4 spurt that gave UH a 58-50 lead.

UH’s lead reached double figures again at 63-52 when Karaitiana fed Megan Huff for a layup with 2:20 left.

The Rainbow Wahine continue their opening road trip of the Big West season at UC Davis on Saturday. UC Davis (8-6, 1-0) opened conference play with a 75-52 win at CSUN on Thursday.

“Playing at their place is always difficult,” Beeman said. “They have two or three really good post players, they shoot the ball well from outside, so definitely we’re going to have to come up with a good game plan and be on our game for sure.”