Hawaii and Cal State Fullerton want to rev their engines tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The difference? The towering Rainbow Warriors have the mind-set of a monster truck rally. The smallish Titans are gearing up for an F-1 grand prix.

"Fasten your seat belts and hold on," Fullerton interim coach Andy Newman said.

An extreme contrast of bodies and skill sets will collide in this Big West Conference barometer game. The teams are among a handful projected to compete for the Big West title. They share identical records of 7-5 overall and 1-0 in conference.

That, and an affinity for pushing the pace when they can, is about all they have in common. The Titans top out at about 6 feet 7 because of injuries and setbacks to four frontcourt players, but have the top two scorers in the Big West — guards D.J. Seeley and Kwame Vaughn. UH has shown little perimeter consistency, but has arguably the best frontcourt in the league with 6-10 Vander Joaquim, 6-8 Isaac Fotu and 6-8 Christian Standhardinger.

UH coach Gib Arnold said his team wouldn’t change its plan to run on rebounds against a team third in the country in points per game (83.8).

"It sure as heck is going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to push it, play fast," Newman said. "One thing I like about Hawaii is they will let us run, and they’re going to run too. I would expect it to be a very fun and entertaining game for the average fan. This is going to be up in the 80s and there’s going to be some big plays made on both sides."

The Titans have gone streaking all year with chunks of consecutive wins and losses, but have been consistently competitive to the buzzer, even in defeat.

Lately, they’re on a major uptick, winning four straight. Senior wing Sammy Yeager is the reigning Big West player of the week after scoring 30 on 11-for-16 shooting in Fullerton’s 86-79 win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Vaughn leads the league with 19.0 points per game. Seeley is close behind at 18.4.

With a deadly drive-and-kick game, the Titans are shooting a blistering 49.9 percent from the field, including 40.9 percent on 3-pointers. They average 9.2 3-point makes a game.

Those numbers, combined with 78.6 percent team free-throw shooting, have lent Fullerton a conference-best scoring margin of plus-10.4 per game.

However, UH is second in the league at field-goal percentage defense at .395. The ‘Bows will attempt first to negate the Titans’ penetration, which sucks in multiple defenders. Success or failure could hinge on the UH perimeter players’ ability to stay home on shooters.

"They have really good guards and we’ve got to be prepared for it," said Joaquim, who is averaging 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. "Offensively, we’ll have a size advantage. Defensively, to make sure we stop the opponent, they do a lot of drive and kick. We’ve got to make sure we keep them away from the 3-point line and see what happens."

The teams are at opposite ends of the Big West spectrum in rebounding margin (UH plus-8.9, Fullerton minus-2.7) and turnover margin (Fullerton plus-3.0 forced, UH minus-4.83 forced).

"We gotta keep our turnovers down," Arnold said. "If we can get shots up on the rim, I like our chances there. We’ve been a very good offensive rebounding team all year and we’ll continue to do that. … If we can turn five or six of those turnovers we’ve been having a game into assists or even shots, I think good things are going to happen. That’s going to be a key."

Freshmen Manroop Clair and Brandon Jawato have given Arnold options on the perimeter lately besides inconsistent senior captains Jace Tavita and Hauns Brereton. Clair and Jawato both played heavy minutes in Saturday’s back-and-forth 74-71 win over Cal State Northridge.

Arnold said he’d go with the hot hand tonight. Jawato has scored in double figures three of the past five games.

"Some nights it’s going to be their night and other nights it’s not," Arnold said. "It’s a team game. Everybody wins when different guys play well."

Junior Brandon Spearman, UH’s third-leading scorer at 10.3 ppg, played light minutes in that game while recovering from an illness. He’ll be fully back in the rotation for this one.

Sharpshooting Fullerton guards aren’t completely unheard of here. The Titans’ Josh Akognon set the Stan Sheriff scoring record of 41 in a 90-76 victory over UH on Nov. 16, 2008.

UH completes a three-game Big West homestand on Saturday against UC Riverside.