Hawaii stopped Cal State Fullerton with a brick wall.

The Rainbow Warriors shot the ball beautifully Thursday to beat UC Irvine and move into first place in the Big West Conference. They stayed there Saturday despite shooting poorly from both the field and the free-throw line in a 76-59 win over the Titans.

UH (20-3, 9-1 BWC) shot just 39.3 percent from the field and 58.8 percent at the stripe, but Fullerton, last in the conference, was worse in both areas (31.7 and 53.1).

“We just figure out a way to win each and every night,” forward Stefan Jankovic said. “Some nights, like Irvine game on Thursday, we’ve shot the lights out. Tonight we didn’t.

“Again, that’s conference play for you. Not every game your shot is going to fall for you, but we just had to grind it out.”

A Stan Sheriff Center turnstile crowd of 7,027 saw UH prevail for the 12th time in 13 games and earn a third straight 20-win season for the first time in the all-college era of opponents.

“It’s good, we’re improving every year,” said senior Quincy Smith, who’s been present for all three 20s and scored 15 points on his 23rd birthday. “But you know, we just can’t settle. We’ve got to keep pushing. Our final goal is to make the (NCAA) Tournament, so hopefully we can get there.”

UH next heads out for road contests at Cal State Northridge and a big one at UC Irvine next week.

Five Rainbows scored in double figures in earning a season sweep of the Titans (9-15, 2-9). UH improved to 8-0 against CSF in four years of league play. Jankovic scored a team-high 16 points, Smith and Aaron Valdes put in 15 apiece, point guard Roderick Bobbitt had 12 and reserve Sai Tummala 11.

Tummala earned the first double-double of his career with a personal-best 10 boards, while Valdes had his second of the season.

Fullerton gave UH a tough test at Titan Gym last month, requiring a frantic rally by the Rainbows to win by seven points in overtime.

But for the second time this week, the Rainbows held an opponent to the low 30s in field-goal percentage. CSF had just four assists against 13 turnovers.

“It was a good overall win,” Jankovic said. “We played great defense again. That’s four games in a row we really stopped teams.”

UH jumped out to a 20-3 start, a harbinger of its record by the end of the night. But the Titans made it a game behind their guard play. Unlike Irvine, they did not allow UH to render the outcome moot — at least until the final couple of minutes.

“Appreciative of coming out of that with a win,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “You’re playing a team that we played before that we had trouble with. … So they had a comfort with us, and they added (Malcolm) Brooks, who didn’t play in Game 1.

“Dedrique (CSF coach Taylor) does a good job with them — they fight, and they fought right back into the game.”

(Taylor was gone from his team’s locker-room area and was not available for comment).

With UH up by nine at halftime, Tummala started the second half for Mike Thomas, who’d already picked up three fouls.

Tummala energized the team with his rebounding, snagging some key ones on the offensive end.

His third of four on the offensive glass drew Tre’ Coggins’ fourth foul with 13 minutes still to play, forcing the Titans’ leading scorer to take a seat.

Taylor had no choice but to reinsert Coggins a few minutes later, and Coggins fouled out with 18 points with 4:55 to play and UH up 63-50.

Freshman guard Khalil Ahmad, CSF’s top scorer in league play, was held to seven points on 2-for-9 shooting.

After UH’s early spurt, the Titans drew within two points on a Coggins 3-pointer, but Jankovic dunked off a dish from Sheriff Drammeh and Bobbitt followed with a 3 to extend the lead again.

UH played through Jankovic, who scored the last five points of the half for a 40-31 Rainbows lead at the break. He had 14 of his points in the period.

Fullerton got within seven points twice early in the second half, but the last time, with 12:48 to play, the ‘Bows answered it with 3-pointers by Tummala and Bobbitt. UH maintained a double-digit lead and put it away at the line, despite going just 20-for-34 and missing the front end of three 1-and-1s in the game.

Guard Isaac Fleming dressed to play and warmed up before the game, but he ended up missing his fourth straight contest coming off a right ankle sprain. UH continues to win anyway without a key member of the rotation.

“Coach (assistant Chris) Acker talked to him before, we’re going to see how the game goes kind of deal,” Ganot said.” Part of it is you’re leaning on how we brought Valdes back. What helped (Valdes), he got to practice first. Isaac, for various reasons, hasn’t practiced. … Let’s get him back into having some practices. That’s kind of it. Pretty simple.”

BIG WEST MEN

Saturday

Long Beach State 57, UC Davis 48

UC Irvine 93, CSUN 84

Cal Poly 86, UC Riverside 78

Hawaii 76, Cal State Fullerton 59

Wednesday

UC Irvine at CS Fullerton

Thursday

Hawaii at CSUN, 5 p.m. HT

UC Davis at Cal Poly

UC Santa Barbara at UC Riverside

hawaii 76, cal state fullerton 59

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — Hawaii 40, Cal State Fullerton 31

3-point goals — Cal State Fullerton 4-20 (Brooks 2-7, Ahmad 1-4, Coggins 1-6, Allman 0-1, Leslie 0-2). Hawaii 8-25 (Smith 2-2, Tummala 2-5, Bobbitt 2-8, Jankovic 1-3, Valdes 1-4, Buscher 0-1, Drammeh 0-1, Thomas 0-1). Steals — Cal State Fullerton 4 (Ahmad, Allman, Esume, Henderson). Hawaii 7 (Bobbitt 4, Jankovic, Jovanovic, Tummala). Blocked shots — Cal State Fullerton 1 (Allman). Hawaii 6 (Jankovic 3, Tummala 2, Thomas). Turnovers — Cal State Fullerton 13 (Ahmad 3, Coggins 3, Allman 2, Myles 2, Akoh, Brooks, Team). Hawaii 9 (Smith 2, Tummala 2, Valdes 2, Bobbitt, Jovanovic, Thomas). Technical fouls — Cal State Fullerton 1 (TEAM). Officials — Tommy Nunez, Ken Ditty, Donn Berdahl. A — 8,401.