Alexis Whitfield tied a career high with 23 points and carried UC Santa Barbara to a 65-53 win over Hawaii tonight at The Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Whitfield added a career-high 19 rebounds to help the Gauchos (13-6, 7-2 Big West) take back first place in the conference with a convincing win over the Rainbow Wahine (9-8, 6-2) in a rematch of last year’s Big West tournament championship game.

Alyssa Marin added 12 points for UCSB, which led by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter.

Olivia Davies had a season-high 14 points and Daejah Phillips also finished with 14 points for Hawaii, which never got closer than 12 in the second half.

Lily Wahinekapu, who finished with nine points on 3-for-6 shooting, surpassed 1,000 points for her career on an elbow jumper in the third quarter.

Hawaii will finish its two-game road trip on Saturday at Cal Poly.