Even a 111-16 lead isn’t safe if you turn the ball over and don’t rebound.

When the Stan Sheriff Center scoreboard did its impression of a pinball machine in the first quarter Saturday, the University of Hawaii women’s basketball team could laugh about it. They could afterward too since UH ended up on the right side of a 67-57 score against UC Irvine, and back atop the Big West standings.

The players did their best to stay loose during a 15-minute break forced by the malfunction, including cracking a few jokes … like, UH’s point total hitting triple-digits could just be the result of another Amy Atwell scoring spree.

It also brought to mind coach Laura Beeman’s take on an old standard about dealing with adversity: “When you’ve got a lemon make a lemon drop martini.”

But while in reality the Wahine didn’t blow a 95-point lead, by halftime their five-point margin at the time of the short-circuit or whatever it was had evaporated to a tie.

And since it involved 11 first-half giveaways Beeman had things other than pau hana cocktails on her mind.

“Turnovers were ridiculous,” she snapped on the way to the locker room. “Self-inflicted. … We need to clean that up.”

They were still a little careless with the rock after the break, but took care of it well enough and were astoundingly good at enough other things to complete a season sweep of Irvine: a win here, and a win at their place.

So now, everyone can start throwing around that cliche. You know, the one that when you think about it usually makes no sense at all, that beating an opponent a third time in a season is harder than second-semester calculus.

This is an issue now because it looks like these two teams could very well meet up again in Henderson, Nev., three weeks from now in the Big West championship game — the winner of which goes to the NCAA Tournament.

Sometimes … actually, no, make that most of the time, you beat an opponent twice — and then a third time — simply because you’re better. And, at least in this case, I’ll put more stock in the premise that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Of course it’s not always that easy, especially in an endeavor that includes so many moving parts … like the basketball itself, which sometimes just refuses to go through the hoop. And if we were to consider the most recent “behavior” of Atwell, who has established herself as one of the program’s all-time greats, it would have been her career-low four points Thursday. She missed eight of the nine shots she took from the floor in Hawaii’s 62-60 home loss to UC San Diego.

I don’t think there was much doubt from anyone around the UH program that Atwell would perform much closer to the 20 points she poured in when the Wahine beat the Anteaters 77-73 at their place on Jan. 15 — or on any number of other occasions that led to her earning four conference Player of the Week awards this season, plus the ones from previous years that have her climbing the program’s career scoring charts and longtime fans rearranging all-time best fives.

“I just didn’t want to play that badly two games in a row,” Atwell said, after 25 points and a career-high 13 rebounds Saturday.

After Thursday, she’d thought about sending a group text to her teammates, apologizing for a lousy game. She thought the better of it though, figuring she’d stick to what she’d always done, speak through her actions.

A text actually was sent, Friday morning, from Beeman to the team with the definition of the word “resilient.”

“I woke up thinking this is a resilient group,” the coach said. “And they play for each other.”

Also, whether it was a point of emphasis or not, it sure looked like one when Hawaii started the game and the second half with Kallin Spiller establishing herself in the low post (and beyond). Spiller figured in UH’s first three baskets, either offensively or defensively, and that loosened things up for Atwell, who hit her first two shots — both 3-pointers — for a 14-8 lead that was a far cry from UH’s 7-0 deficit after the tip-off two nights prior.

Then Spiller started the third quarter with nine of her 15 points, including a 3-pointer of her own. When Atwell hit another trey, it was 49-40 midway through the third, and Hawaii never relinquished the lead.

The Wahine have four regular-season games left, two on the road next week, and two at home the following. Senior night against UC Santa Barbara on March 5 marks the final home game of one of the most remarkable players in Wahine basketball history.

“We’re playing for Amy,” Spiller said. “There’s a big want and need to win these games for her, for all she’s done for this program.”