The UC San Diego women’s basketball team plays for a second straight Big West Tournament title and NCAA berth Saturday afternoon.

The regular-season co-champion and second-seeded Tritons roared back after a slow start Friday to defeat third-seeded UC Davis 84-79 in the semifinals to return to the championship game.

UC San Diego (23-8), winners of five straight games, will play fourth-seeded Hawaii (22-10) Saturday at 2:30 for the Big West title at the Lee’s Family Forum. The Rainbow Warriors upset top-seeded and regular-season co-champion UC Irvine 67-63 in the first semifinal. UCSD twice defeated Hawaii during the regular season.

Davis, which had beaten the Tritons twice during the regular season, scored seven straight points to build a quick 11-2 lead against UCSD on Friday.

But guard Sabrina Ma stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws that triggered a 20-4 UCSD run over five minutes and 20 seconds that shot UCSD into a 22-15 lead. The Tritons were up by as many as 12 at 40-28 with 2:54 to play in the first half.

Freshman guard Lev Feiman’s pull-up jumper had given UCSD a 16-15 lead with 2:05 to play in the first quarter. The Tritons never trailed again in the game, although UC Davic twice pulled back to within a point. Feiman came off the bench to score eight points during the 20-4 Tritons’ run while Maykala Rose and Eric Condron each scored six points.

Ma led the Tritons with 21 points (two shy of her season high). She was 4-for-10 from 3-point range and also had two steals.

Rose finished with 19 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal while playing all 40 minutes. Dymonique Maxie also played every minute and finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists. Feiman finished with 16 points on a 6-for-11 game from the field.

Condron was held to eight points, but had six assists when the Davis defense collapsed on her. Reserve post Damilola Sule had six rebounds in seven minutes, subbing when Condron got into foul trouble.

“I thought our team showed a lot of determination and resilience,” said UCSD coach Heidi VanDerveer. “Sometimes it’s a challenge to get started coming into this game off the double bye.”

PLNU splits

Point Loma Nazarene’s men’s team advanced to the NCAA Division II Western Regionals semifinals. But the Sea Lions women’s team lost their quarterfinal match to end their season.

The PacWest Conference champion PLNU men (26-5) defeated Northwest Nazarene (18-11) 76-61 in their quarterfinals in Hayward. Third-seeded PLNU will play second-seeded St. Martin’s (26-5) in today’s semifinals at 5 p.m.

Forward Andrew Nagy led Point Loma Nazarene with 22 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Junior guard Caden Harris had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals and drew parallels between his strong game and noon starting time.

“We’ve played three straight playoff games at noon, and I’ve played pretty well,” said Harris, who had 58 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and six steals in those three games.

Forward Andrew Hommes added 13 points while point guard Jaden Matingou (St. Augustine High School) had six points, eight assists, four rebounds and three assists. PLNU shot 60% (12-for-20) from the field in the second half and were 27-for-53 for the game and 8-for-20 from 3-point range.

Meanwhile, second-seeded Western Washington (25-7) ousted seventh-seeded PLNU women (21-9) 74-60 in the NCAA Division II Western Regional quarterfinals at Ellensburg, Wash.

Western Washington went on a 22-4 run in the middle of the game to wipe out a 34-30 PLNU lead.

Guard Izzy Navarro (Cathedral Catholic High School) paced PLNU with 20 points, five rebounds, nine assists, two steals and two blocks, although she also turned the ball over eight times. Guard Maddie Morrow scored nine points by going 3-for-6 from 3-point range. Guard Hannah Golan had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.