ANAHEIM, CALIF. >> The Hawaii women’s basketball team ended a nearly two-decade NCAA tournament drought by defeating UC Davis 78-59 in the Big West tournament championship game today.

About half of the announced crowd of 1,523 at the Honda Center were UH fans on hand to see the Rainbow Wahine (21-10) celebrate their first NCAA-clinching win since 1998.

Fourth-year coach Laura Beeman became the first UH coach besides Vince Goo to earn such a victory. The Rainbow Wahine lost to Cal State Northridge in the 2015 Big West title game and settled for a third straight trip to the WNIT after that loss.

“This is a team that, we believed in our process,” Beeman said. “Not from the beginning, but from a point that when we all committed and continued to work through that process, it has paid great dividends for us. So very, very pleased and happy for these young ladies.”

It will be the program’s sixth trip to the NCAAs overall. UH will find out its region, seeding and opponent on Monday.

Second-seeded UH shot 50 percent from the field and won the rebounding battle 47-29 as it routed a conference opponent for the second time in as many days, following up Friday’s 76-60 defeat of Long Beach State.

Senior Ashleigh Karaitiana shot 5-for-9 on 3s and scored 17 points en route to tournament MVP honors, while senior Destiny King joined her on the all-tournament team after posting eight points and seven assists.

“I don’t think it was the (program history that drove us), I think it was our history of last year,” Karaitiana said. “We were in this game, and we got the result we didn’t want or expect. This year we were more prepared, we knew what we need to do and we took care of that on the floor tonight.”

Guard Briana Harris added 13 points and forward Megan Huff 10 in the victory. Center Kalei Adolpho had nine points and nine rebounds.

The UH men’s basketball team will take on Long Beach State at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2 for its own chance at a Big West tourney title with an NCAA appearance at stake.