Somebody’s getting a split today in Stockton, Calif.

Hawaii wants to salvage the last leg of its two-game California road trip. Pacific desires to even its home-and-home preview series with the Rainbow Warriors before the teams meet annually in the Big West Conference starting next season.

One team will leave empty-handed from the Alex G. Spanos Center after today’s 5 p.m. Hawaii time rematch between UH (2-3) and UOP (3-3).

UH’s tightest and most dramatic game of the season happened 11 days ago against the Tigers. The ‘Bows held on at home for a 75-70 win thanks to some late hustle plays by sophomore forward Trevor Wiseman and the go-ahead three-point play by sophomore guard Garrett Jefferson with 3.1 seconds left.

One of the bright spots on UH’s resume so far this season has been its play against its future conference opponents. The ‘Bows are 2-0 against the Big West, and 0-3 against everyone else.

It could be a different story in Northern California. Pacific is undefeated in three games on its home floor, where UH got in a practice after arriving in Stockton on Monday.

"We did some things really well (against Pacific)," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "I thought we rebounded really well on the offensive glass, had some pretty good execution offensively. Need to do a better job of stopping their guard penetration. I thought that hurt us. And it’s always tough to win on the road, so we’ve got to do some special things."

The Tigers are coming off a 65-57 home win on Saturday over Utah State, the four-time defending Western Athletic Conference champion.

That victory made 24th-year Pacific coach Bob Thomason the winningest coach in Big West Conference history (406), passing Jerry Tarkanian.

"Tell Gib he’s got a long ways to go to break that record … no, I’m just kidding," Thomason said in a Monday phone interview. "We’re just trying to compete, get better and see if we can go back-to-back wins."

Meanwhile, UH is coming off a bitter 73-67 loss at Pepperdine on Saturday in the first leg of the two-game California swing.

Free-throw parades by opponents have cost UH in all three losses this season, especially against Pepperdine. The Waves went 27-for-35. Opponents this year are averaging 28 free-throw attempts per game, making 22. When the ‘Bows went 19-13 last season, they gave up 14.7 points per game at the line on an average of 21.2 attempts.

"I think that’s the biggest thing that’s preventing us from winning those games," Arnold said. "We’ve been giving up way too many free throws and fouling way too much."

Another key will be getting leading scorer Zane Johnson (16.0 points per game) back on track offensively.

He was held to a season-low nine points at Pepperdine, breaking a streak of 13 double-digit scoring games going back to last season. He is shooting 37.2 percent on 3-pointers, but just 35.9 percent overall.

Meanwhile, junior center Vander Joaquim — UH’s other preseason All-WAC selection — struggled offensively with four points. He picked up two technical fouls (and an automatic ejection) in the second half of the loss to the Waves.

Point guard Lorenzo McCloud leads the balanced Tigers with 9.8 ppg. He had 23 points in the first meeting.