As quickly as Hawaii tightened its grip on the Big West lead on Thursday, the race for the top two seeds and a bye into the BWC Tournament semifinals next month is right back to wide open.

Five teams are separated by one game at the top of the conference after Hawaii saw a 13-point lead in the second half disappear in a 61-51 loss to UC Davis on Saturday at the University Credit Union Center in Davis, Calif.

Tova Sabel scored 13 of her game-high 17 points after halftime and the Aggies closed the game on a 40-17 run to end Hawaii’s four-game winning streak.

UC Davis (13-10, 9-4) is tied with UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly one game back of Hawaii (13-9, 10-3), which shares the league lead with UC Irvine.

The Rainbow Wahine will welcome the Mustangs to SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday, then host the Gauchos on Saturday.

They will need an effort and intensity head coach Laura Beeman said she didn’t see in the second half against the Aggies.

“(UC Davis) picked up their intensity and we were unable to. That’s really what it comes down to,” Beeman said. “They started cutting harder, playing harder, defensively they stay within their game plan and second half our offense was lacking.”

Hawaii, which got a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds from Imani Perez, led UC Davis by as many as 13 after Perez hit a 3-pointer to start the third quarter.

UH was held to just 17 points the rest of the game and shot 21% (6-for-28) from the field in the second half.

Lily Wahinekpau had 12 points, five rebounds and three assists and Daejah Phillips added 10 points, seven rebounds and two steals off the bench.

MeiLani McBee played a team-high 37 minutes and had five points and four steals but was 1-for-7 from 3-point range.

Four Aggies scored in double figures, with Victoria Baker finishing with 12 points off the bench. All of her points came in the second half as the Aggies put up back-to-back 20-point quarters against a Hawaii team that ranks in the top 30 in the country in points allowed per game and defensive field-goal percentage.

“I can’t remember other than maybe a Stanford or Washington or UCLA game where we gave up 20 points in two quarters,” Beeman said. “When you don’t show up to play, it doesn’t matter if it’s at home or on the road, good teams are going to beat you.”

Hawaii controlled the game through the entire first half. The Rainbow Wahine jumped out to a 14-9 lead in the opening six minutes, connecting on their first four 3-point attempts.

Perez hit UH’s fifth 3-pointer early in the second quarter to push UH’s lead to 23-17 before both teams went cold from the field.

Neither team scored again for more than four minutes until McBee’s layup increased the lead to eight.

A Phillips jumper prompted a 30-second timeout by the Aggies with 2:45 to go to in the half. UC Davis’ scoring drought lasted more than six minutes until Nya Epps’ layup on an assist from Lena Svanhom out of the timeout.

Wahinekapu hit a jumper that didn’t count after she was whistled for an offensive foul with two seconds to go to keep the lead to 10 at 31-21 heading into intermission.

UC Davis shot 23% (3-for-13) from the field in the second quarter and was 1-for-11 (9%) from 3 in the first half.

The Rainbow Wahine saw a 13-point lead in the third quarter disappear on Baker’s 3-pointer that capped a 15-2 run to tie the game at 39-all.

Hawaii went more than seven minutes without a field goal, with Wahinekapu ending the drought after Perez hit a 3 on UH’s first possession of the second half.

Olivia Davies gave UH a 44-41 lead entering the fourth quarter after a high-arching 3 from just in front of the Hawaii bench went in as time expired.

The Aggies ended the game outscoring UH 20-7 in the fourth quarter.

“No one really stepped up,” Beeman said. “Our offense became really stagnant. We would dribble the clock down, get low clock and bad shots. Off-ball movement was pretty poor. Passing up shots that were available and good. I thought our pace was very, very poor.”