Unexpectedly forced to play in “the Gold Mine,” Hawaii quickly found itself in a deep hole on Saturday.

After a sudden change of venue due to a leaky roof at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid, the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s slow start set the tone for a 62-48 loss in rainy Long Beach, Calif.

“It reminded me of my JUCO days, when you never know where you’re going to play and what’s going to happen,” UH coach Laura Beeman said of the shuffle. “That absolutely has nothing to do, though, with how inconsistent we were in the game.”

The Rainbow Wahine (5-9, 3-2 Big West) held their pregame shootaround in the Pyramid earlier Saturday morning. But Beeman said it became quickly apparent a change was coming when the rain started falling in Long Beach.

“As soon as we walked in and they had kiddie pools on the floor catching raindrops from the ceiling, we had a good inkling that the game was going to be moved,” Beeman said.

The team was bused to the Gold Mine, a gym with a capacity of 1,900, and after warmups, the game tipped off an hour after the originally scheduled start time.

The game was slated to be televised on Spectrum Sports Net and streamed on ESPN+. But after the move, viewing was limited to the fans in the gym. Attendance was listed as 688.

UH struggled to a 3-for-16 start from the field while the Beach (9-7, 4-2) hit three 3-pointers in an 11-0 run to take a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. The Beach led by at least eight for the remainder of the game and stretched the margin to 20 late in the third quarter.

“They jumped on us pretty quickly,” Beeman said. “I think their length and speed definitely bothered us tonight.”

Guard Tori Harris led LBSU with 15 points and eight rebounds and Malia Bambrick added 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting. Krystyna Jeskeova finished with nine points and had six of LBSU’s 14 steals. UH committed 22 turnovers and Long Beach State scored 19 points off of takeaways.

“That was one of our goals in the game plan — we had to limit turnovers,” Beeman said. “Between turning it over in the deep corner and driving into some bad areas, they made us pay for our turnovers.”

UH’s duo of Ivy League graduates Kallin Spiller and McKenna Haire delivered the bulk of the team’s scoring.

Spiller, a Columbia graduate, accounted for the team’s first 10 points and finished with a game-high 16. She started the game 4-for-7 from the field while the rest of the roster went 0-for-16 before Daejah Phillips hit a jumper with 1:54 left in the second quarter.

Haire, who transferred from Princeton last season, scored 12 of her career-high 15 points in the second half and hit four 3-pointers, also a career best.

“She’s been putting in a lot of time in the gym,” Beeman said. “She really bought into (getting) off the ball, relocate quickly and be shot ready and did a fabulous job with that and it paid off. She got her feet set and was able to hit shots.”

Saturday’s game started a run of four games in eight days for the Wahine, who continue their road trip on Monday at Cal State Northridge before returning for home games on Thursday and Saturday.

“When we show up and play good basketball, I think we can compete with and beat anyone in our conference,” Beeman said. “When we’re inconsistent on both sides of the ball … it makes it really difficult.”