Points were there for the taking when the Hawaii soccer team rallied from two goals down to even things up with UC Santa Barbara in their game’s waning moments in Santa Barbara, Calif.

But the Gauchos had a final response, an 86th-minute goal from close range by Maddie Gibson, and the hosts sent the Rainbow Wahine home disappointed Sunday with a 3-2 loss and an empty two-game Big West road trip. Despite some second-half heroics by freshman Tia Furuta, UH suffered its 10th straight conference defeat going back to last year’s 0-8 campaign.

UH (7-3-1, 0-2 BWC) had an uphill battle against rested UCSB (10-1-1, 1-0), which was unbeaten at home and had a bye Friday while UH tussled with Cal Poly and lost 2-1.

“I was really proud of the kids,” UH coach Michele Nagamine said in a postgame phone interview. “We’re going to go back and we’ll be better for this experience.”

But the Wahine have little margin for error now as they attempt to qualify for their first Big West tournament.

“I’d rather start off 0-2 and end up 6-2 than win your first two and lose your next six,” Nagamine said. “It was a tough road trip but they showed some real bright spots. And I think we can build off of those for sure.”

The Wahine host UC Riverside (3-6-3, 0-1) on Thursday.

Nagamine credited goalkeeper Monk Berger for keeping it close as UCSB dominated early; the Gauchos had a 14-1 shots advantage at the break and attempted 16 corner kicks in total. UH trimmed the shot margin to 17-10 in the end.

After UCSB pounced with a corner kick goal in the second minute, it tacked on an unusual score in the 58th. The Wahine were whistled for a dangerous high kick near their goal and the Gauchos were awarded an indirect kick from within the 18-yard box. A goal cannot be scored straight in on an indirect, so UCSB tapped the ball quickly and Sydney Magnin chipped it perfectly over the UH wall.

“That was something we’re going to have to learn from,” Nagamine said. “We told the team we’ve got to be better at the little things.”

UH went to an aggressive 3-4-3 formation in the second half and Furuta scored her first career goal in the 67th on a corner kick by Raisa Strom-Okimoto, who recorded her team-best sixth assist. Furuta then launched an assist ball ahead to the feet of Addie Steiner, who equalized the game at 2-2 in the 84th minute with her fifth goal of the year.

“Tia has been inching along, and has been making great progress,” Nagamine said of the former state player of the year out of Mililani. “She was very, very impactful today.”

A letdown at the other end less than two minutes later did in the Wahine, as UCSB crossed it into the box over UH’s slimmed back line and put it in at point-blank range in the 86th.