More often than not during Hawaii’s 11-game winning streak, the Rainbow Wahine have found themselves trailing after the first quarter.

UH was behind after the first 10 minutes in six of the wins, including the two most recent games last week at home.

No deficit was more severe than the 19 points UH trailed UC Santa Barbara by on Saturday before coming back to win by seven and secure the biggest come-from-behind win in program history.

As the Rainbow Wahine close in on potentially owning the best record in the Big West Conference regular season for the second straight year, Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said Tuesday she isn’t overly worried about the team’s slow starts.

Hawaii’s ability to adjust and make changes on the fly is why the Rainbow Wahine (17-6, 11-2) find themselves leading Saturday’s opponent, UC Irvine, by a half-game for first place entering today’s game at the Pyramid against Long Beach State (12-10, 8-5).

“This team makes really good adjustments whether it is quarter to quarter or half to half,” Beeman said outside of SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center before the team departed for the continent. “I think as long we can have great pace and continue to really work on our focus and our intensity, we will be in good shape. You always want to come out strong. I also want to finish strong.”

Hawaii has certainly done that during its win streak that began after UH lost for the fifth time in six games against UC Santa Barbara on the second day of the new year.

The Rainbow Wahine opened the season 5-1 before a loss to No. 1 UCLA in which UH fell behind by double digits in the first quarter before cutting the deficit to three at halftime.

Hawaii then opened the conference season with a rare early-December Big West game against the Beach in which UH lost a conference home game for the first time since 2023.

Lily Wahinekapu scored a season-high 20 points and Hawaii fell one block short of trying the record for the most in a game with 13 but again trailed after the first quarter and gave up a season-high in points in conference play.

“Our pace was really bad that game, their pace was really good,” Beeman said. “I thought their gameplan against us was very, very good and well executed and so we need to go their place now and we need to have a well-executed gameplan and I think we will.”

Saturday’s win over the Gauchos avenged one of UH’s two losses in conference play and a victory over the Beach would give Hawaii at least one regular-season win over every other school.

Hawaii and UC Irvine (16-6, 10-2), who play Saturday at noon in Irvine, Calif., are the only two teams in the conference with fewer than four losses.

The top two teams earn a double-bye into the semifinals of the eight-team Big West Conference Championships, which begin in a month.

Hawaii leads third-place UC Davis by 2 1/2 games and is three games up on Long Beach State.

“Thursday’s game is more of a revenge game and obviously we’re a completely different team than we first played them and I think it will be a fun game for us, especially because of what happened the first time,” senior wing MeiLani McBee said. “We love this win steak and as long as we keep playing like we know we can play, we can keep this momentum going.”

This is the 10th time in program history Hawaii has gone on a winning streak of at least 10 games. UH is one of 15 teams entering this week in NCAA Division I with an active winning streak of at least 11 games.

The school record for wins in a row is 19, in the 1992-93 season and 1997-98. This is just the second UH winning streak of at least 10 games since 1998.

RAINBOW WAHINE BASKETBALL

Hawaii (17-6, 11-2 Big West) vs. Long Beach State (12-10, 8-5)

>> When: Today, 4 p.m., Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, Calif.

Hawaii vs. UC Irvine (16-6, 10-2 BW)

>> When: Saturday, Noon, Bren Events Center, Irvine, Calif.

>> Stream: ESPN+

>> Radio: None