Stop the drives, staunch the bleeding.

That was the mission statement at Hawaii basketball practice on Friday, as the still-smarting Rainbow Warriors sought to get past Thursday night’s disappointing home loss to Long Beach State and prepare for today’s game against Cal State Northridge.

UH has statistically been the second-worst defensive team in the Big West in conference play, allowing 79.3 points per game on 50.8 percent field-goal shooting. Those numbers hiked up a notch when it seemed UH’s guards were running in sand against The Beach; the visitors drove into the paint at will en route to 60 percent shooting in a 92-83 defeat of the Rainbow Warriors. It cast a pall over what might have been a sunny start to a four-game homestand at the Stan Sheriff Center.

“I think particularly last night, it was really noticeable,” UH coach Gib Arnold said. “A team shot 60 percent against us. That’s not what we’re about; we’re a better defensive team than that. So it was just really hitting on that tonight. But this is a team that can play defense. It’s a team that moves well and has good reaction speed. So we should be a very good defensive team.”

Forward Christian Standhardinger, who sat out Friday’s practice as a precaution for a bruised knee, said of the retooled mind-set: “That starts with each one of us. We all gotta, like, take pride and effort into it, because we can score it every night. And we’ve proved that. If we can defend it every night, we’ll be a very, very good team.”

Despite the defeat, the fifth-place ’Bows (14-6, 3-3 Big West) are only a game out of first nearing the midpoint of the conference season. UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Long Beach State are tied atop the standings at 4-2, and Cal Poly is 4-3.

Offensively, UH remains potent at 82.7 points per game, thanks largely to sophomore forward Isaac Fotu, who has raised his profile considerably of late, commanding frantic double-teams from league opponents. That hasn’t stopped him from shooting 18-for-22 in the past two games, moving the Kiwi up to fourth nationally in field-goal percentage (.629). His rate is .714 in Big West play. 

“We hate losing more than anything,” Fotu said. “I think it’ll be in the back of our mind while we play, but we’re looking forward now and trying to get these three home wins and see what happens from there.”

Northridge (11-11, 3-4) and its first-year coach, Reggie Theus, solved some of its issues on Thursday, at least for the moment.

After a 79-78 defeat of Hawaii at the Matadome on Jan. 11, Northridge dropped four straight games but got back on track with a 93-89 overtime defeat of last-place UC Riverside at home.

The Matadors, whom Arnold called the most athletic team in the league, want to scrap for putbacks and get to the free-throw line, where they are third in the country at 77.9 percent.

Arnold stayed on his players Friday to move their feet to cut off drives without reaching and jabbing with their hands at the risk of sending the Matadors to the line, where they shot 28-for-31 (90.3 percent) in the last meeting.

Northridge boasts three of the top eight scorers in the league in forwards Stephen Maxwell (17.4 ppg) and Stephan Hicks (16.2) and sharpshooting guard Josh Greene (15.1). 

Maxwell is coming off a big night: 24 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and three assists against Riverside. Against UH last month, he was beastly as well, with 24 points on 10-for-13 shooting.

“They’re all very, very good,” UH associate head coach Benjy Taylor said of the Matadors’ big three. “They do it every night. They show up every night. Maxwell doesn’t take a play off. We did a pretty good job on him except for about a four-minute, four-possession span in the second half where he just really got to the offensive boards on us. We gotta do a good job of playing those guys for 40 minutes.”

UH’s home loss to Long Beach State on Thursday was the program’s first home defeat to the 49ers since the 49ers won in Honolulu on consecutive nights to begin the series in February 1970.

The quick two games against Northridge in the first half of Big West play marks the first home-and-home series completed this season. UH still has not faced UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton.

Note

Today’s game is being promoted as “Pajama Night” for UH students. The student with the funniest pajamas wins. Students also receive a free slice of pizza.