Hawaii’s focus on free throws paid off for the Rainbow Wahine — and their fans — on Monday.

The Rainbow Wahine sent a parade of shooters to the line throughout the Big West contest with Cal State Bakersfield and set season highs with 31 free throws on 39 attempts in a 65-52 win at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

UH guard Lily Wahinekapu was the most frequent visitor to the foul line, draining 11 of 14 free throws on her way to a team-high 16-point performance.

The Wahine (12-13, 10-6 Big West) scored their final nine points of the game on free throws and an afternoon crowd of 529 also benefited when guard Kelsie Imai hit two free throws with 44.5 seconds left to push UH past the 62-point mark that rewards those in attendance with free tacos.

“I figured it was going to be a pretty physical game, I felt our girls did a good job of being able to get to the basket,” UH coach Laura Beeman said.

“Our ability to draw contact, get to the free-throw line and then shoot 80%, we needed that because we had some pretty good offensive lulls tonight. Defensively I thought we locked in and did some great stuff. We fouled too much, but overall we knew this was going to be a grind-it-out game and it was.”

UH forward Kallin Spiller said the team devoted one of its off days last week to free-throw shooting, with each player taking 100 attempts with a goal of making 75 to 80.

“We really wanted to lock in, that’s been an area we’ve been trying to focus on,” said Spiller, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. “As a team we know we need those points to close out close games … and so it was nice to see that translate to the court tonight.”

UH’s production from the line helped the Wahine weather an 0-for-11 drought from the field in the third quarter to take a 44-43 lead into the fourth. CSUB went ahead to start the final period, but Wahinekapu hit a 3-pointer at the 9:23 mark of the fourth quarter for UH’s first field goal of the second half. Her shot pushed the sophomore into double-figure scoring for the 11th consecutive game and sparked a 14-2 run that gave UH command.

“When we hit big shots, when we execute well, it gives you a sense of a lid coming off the basket finally,” Beeman said. “We had some really good looks tonight and the ball just didn’t fall. Lily’s hit big shots for us all year, and for her to hit that opening the fourth, that was good stuff for sure.”

UH guard Daejah Phillips followed with a 3-pointer and contributed seven points to the decisive surge. Phillips, who was held to two points in UH’s 48-47 loss to Long Beach State on Saturday, bounced back with 11 points and seven rebounds and went 6-for-9 from the free-throw line.

Although Beeman noted a possible hangover from Saturday’s last-second defeat to the conference leader, the Wahine managed to earn a split of their homestand going into the final road trip of the regular season.

“I don’t know if you ever put losses like that behind you,” Beeman said. “Hopefully it gives you motivation to do things differently in practice and in your preparation and during the game. … It was the motivation that we just need to get another streak started and let’s do that today.”

CSUB guard Taylor Caldwell led the Roadrunners (6-18, 3-13) with 17 points and scored seven consecutive points in the span of a minute in the third quarter to chop an eight-point UH lead to one. Caldwell went 4-for-7 from the field and 9-for-13 from the line in a game that featured a total of 53 fouls (32 on CSUB and 21 on UH).

Forward Grace Hunter added 11 points, but forward Hennie van Schaik, CSUB’s leading scorer, picked up two fouls in the first five minutes of the game and was whistled for her third nine seconds into the third quarter. She finished the game with one point in less than 11 minutes on the court.

The Rainbow Wahine, who have a quick turnaround into their final road trip of the regular season, play at UC Riverside (5-22, 3-14) on Thursday, with a game at UC Irvine (20-5, 12-2) scheduled for Saturday. UC Irvine canceled its past two games due to a lack of available players and is scheduled to play UC San Diego on Thursday prior to facing UH.