Portland bolted ahead early and maintained a brisk tempo to run away from Hawaii on Wednesday.

The Pilots hit their first three shots and never trailed in a 70-54 victory over the visiting Rainbow Wahine basketball team at the Chiles Center in Portland, Ore.

UH went down by 10 in the first quarter and nearly made up the gap midway through the second. But Portland’s pressure kept the Rainbow Wahine out of rhythm and UH fell to 0-2 on its season-opening trip to the Pacific Northwest.

“They sped us up all night,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “We knew we were going to have to do some things very, very well tonight in order to beat them and we were not able to execute the way we needed to execute. We could never really play the pace that enabled us to run an offense and stay organized.”

Portland guard Maisie Burnham hit three 3-pointers in a 22-point performance on 9-for-15 shooting and forward Alexa Fowler scored 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Pilots (2-0) — voted second in the West Coast Conference preseason poll — past UH for the second straight year and the fourth time in the last six.

Portland’s collective effort overcame a career night for UH guard Daejah Phillips. The sophomore went 10-for-14 from the field and 4-for-5 from the free-throw line and finished with a career- and game-high 25 points. She also swiped six of UH’s 13 steals.

“Daejah plays hard and Daejah’s an athlete,.” Beeman said. “She has a remarkable ability to adjust to what teams throw at her. She’s a big guard, and that’s what we saw all night. We were seeing 6-1, 6-2 on the perimeter and Daejah can play against that where some of the smaller guards struggle a little bit.”

UH got seven points each from center Kallin Spiller, who also had a game-high 10 rebounds, guard Lily Wahinekapu and freshman forward Imani Perez. Aside from Phillips’ production, the rest of the lineup shot 10-for-39 from the field. The Wahine went 3-for-14 from 3-point range two days after draining 12 from long range in a 61-60 loss at Oregon State on Monday.

“Defensively, at times we blew assignments and there were some issues,” Beeman said. “But the bigger issue was we were never organized and shared the ball enough offensively. So we were taking rushed shots.”

Burnham, a 6-foot sophomore, went 0-for-7 in Portland’s 91-77 win over UH last year at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, but powered the Pilots early in Wednesday’s rematch with seven points in the first quarter and UH played from behind for all but 20 seconds in the game.

The Wahine scuffled to a 2-for-13 start and trailed 15-5 late in the first quarter. UH closed to 24-22 when Phillips scored in the post with 4:35 left in the second quarter, but the Pilots ended the half on an 8-2 run.

Phillips opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, but the Wahine went cold again and Portland pulled away with a 14-2 surge.

UH closed to within nine early in the fourth when Phillips converted a turnover into a three-point play and freshman Jovi Lefotu hit a jumper in the lane. But Fowler and Burnham fueled another run the Pilots maintained control through the final buzzer.

The Rainbow Wahine make their home debut on Nov. 18 against Florida Gulf Coast in the Bank of Hawaii Classic.

“We just have to keep grinding,” Beeman said. “We have to be able to make adjustments on the fly, we have to be able to change pace and play a more physical-style game when necessary and play a more controlled game like we did against Oregon State.”