The Wahine (24-7) will face the winner of Friday's Oregon State-Brigham Young game in the second round. The Broncos ended their season 20-8.

Santa Clara outshot Hawaii 37 percent to 36 percent from the field, but the Wahine made 28 of their 41 free throws, while the Broncos made seven of their 14.

Santa Clara opened the second half with a 6-0 run to close to within eight points, 34-26. Hawaii immediately countered with an 8-0 run to build a 42-26 advantage at 15:42.

The Broncos never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way. Lee converted one of two free throws with 1:01 left to give the Wahine their biggest lead of the night at 68-51.

Early in the game, Lee scored nine consecutive points in a little more than two minutes to give Hawaii its first double-digit advantage at 15-5.

A Lee 3-pointer at 1:37 gave the Wahine a 33-18 lead. The Broncos closed to 34-20 at halftime on Becki Ashbaugh's driving lay-in just before the buzzer.

April Atuaia had 12 points and Dainora Puida added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Hawaii.

Annie Garrison led Santa Clara with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ashbaugh added 11 points.

In securing the victory, Hawaii had to overcome the loss of its team captain and second-leading scorer. Kylie Galloway unexpectedly quit the team for undisclosed reasons earlier this week.