The UC San Diego women are headed back to the NCAA Tournament.

For the second time in as many years that they’ve been eligible for the title, the Tritons rallied from a cold-shooting first half to defeat the University of Hawaii 60-48 Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Big West Conference Tournament at Henderson, Nev., to clinch an automatic NCAA  bid.

UC San Diego (24-8), the regular-season co-champions of the Big West, outscored Hawaii (22-11) 40-20 in the second half.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” said Tritons head coach Heidi VanDerveer. “We went into halftime with the thought ‘Where is our team.’ I thought we were kind of imposters in the first half.

“We came out for the second half on a mission. We wanted to leave it all on the floor. We put together a second half like no other.”

All-Big West post Erin Condron led UCSD with 22 points and 14 rebounds in a double-double performance. The 6-foot-4 junior from Australia was 10 for 18 on field goal attempts. Guard Makayla Rose had 17 points, eight rebounds and five steals. Guard Dymonique Maxie had three points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Condron, Rose and Maxie played all 40 minutes.

“This is what we worked so hard for since last summer,” said Condron. “Games like this show we can do hard things,” said Rose.

Guard Rosa Smith added eight points. Guard Sabrina Ma had seven points and five assists.

Fourth-seeded Hawaii led 28-20 at intermission as UCSD shot just 8 for 35 from the floor in the first half and was 2-for-11 from 3-point range. But UCSD dominated the second half. They converted 17 of 34 shots in the second half. The Tritons finished with a 39-34 edge in rebounds and forced Hawaii into 19 turnovers while making 11 steals and turning the ball over only seven times.

UCSD jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead Saturday then were outscored 13-2 over the next 7:06. Hawaii led 32-21 when UCSD went on 11-0 run in the third quarter, tying the game at 32-32 on two Rose free throws with 3:55 remaining in the quarter.

Two Condron free throws with 31 seconds to go in the third quarter put UCSD ahead 38-37 for the first time since the game’s opening minutes. After taking a 42-37 lead with a 6-0 run, the Tritons never led by fewer than three points.

UCSD won all three meetings with Hawaii this season, twice holding the Rainbow Warriors under 50 points.

“Last year, in our first experience in this tournament, we might have snuck up on some people,” said VanDerveer. “This year, there was no sneaking up. I don’t think it matters if you are the hunter or the hunted. You have to eat.”

PLNU in title game

Third-seeded Point Loma Nazarene University (27-5) advanced to Monday’s championship game of the NCAA Division II men’s Western Regionals with a 65-57 victory over second-seeded Saint Martin’s (26-6) Saturday afternoon at Hayward.

PLNU will play the winner of Saturday night’s late game between Cal State East Bay (31-0) and Cal State Dominguez Hills (22-8) in Monday’s regional championship game at 7 p.m.

Forward Andrew Nagy led PLNU Saturday with 21 points and seven rebounds – giving him 43 points and 15 rebounds for the first two games of the regionals. Andrew Hommes had 10 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots. Caden Harris scored 10 points with three steals and point guard Jaden Matingou (St. Augustine High) had eight points and six assists.

PLNU led 38-25 at intermission, but Saint Martins opened the second half with a 10-1 run to pull to within four at 39-35. But the Sea Lions’ lead was never fewer than three.

Title contender

MiraCosta College will play for the California Community College women’s championship Sunday at 1 p.m. at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia.

Led by a triple-double by point guard Anayla Anderson, the Spartans (31-1) defeated Fresno City College (24-8) 66-54 Saturday afternoon in the 3C2A semifinals. MiraCosta, the third-seeded team from Southern California will play No. 1 North seed San Joaquin Delta (27-5) in the title game.

Anderson, the Player of the Year in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, had 23 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists against Fresno. Melia Hinojos had 14 points, Kiya Waters had 11 points and eight rebounds, Kyla Palpallatoc (Morse High) had seven points and two assists and Chiya Scott (University City High) had five points and seven rebounds.

The Spartans outscored Fresno 39-28 in the second half.

Meanwhile, San Francisco defeated San Diego City College 78-67 late Friday night in the men’s quarterfinals of the 3C2A championships. The Knights (25-6) were the No. 5 seed from Southern California. San Francisco (30-1) was the top-seeded team from the Northern Regionals. Dylan Griffin (University City High) led SDCC with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Junior Camacho added 19 points.