The only thing Hawaii could shoot Thursday night was itself in the foot.

A two-week opportunity for the Rainbow Warriors to make up ground in the Big West Conference instead became a study in missed chances. UH shot a season-worst 36.8 percent and fell at home for the second time in three games with a 75-64 shortfall against league co-leader UC Santa Barbara.

UH led by nine early and held a three-point advantage at halftime. But UCSB (15-6, 6-2 Big West) came up with the biggest shots in the second half to remain tied for first in the conference with UC Irvine.

UH (15-7, 4-4) fell to the middle of the pack at the league’s halfway point with its second defeat during its current four-game homestand. Cal Poly, which owns a five-game winning streak on UH, is already in town for its Saturday matchup at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"I told the guys in the locker room I didn’t think we really played all that bad," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "It was a frustrating game in that we could never get any rhythm offensively. Gosh, we just couldn’t hit shots. … We’ve always had one guy get kind of hot that we could run plays to. We didn’t have that tonight."

While Gauchos junior center Alan Williams (20 points, 17 rebounds, five blocks) lived up to his billing, UH could not produce its normal top-20 offensive output. The ‘Bows’ big men were passable, but UH’s guards combined for a woeful 11-for-37 from the field.

UH forwards Isaac Fotu and Christian Standhardinger expended much of their energy fronting Williams, the league’s leading scorer and rebounder, on the defensive end as the Gauchos played plenty of four-out, one-in offense with Williams as the focal point. Fotu and Standhardinger combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds. Brandon Spearman added 11, but no other Rainbows player scored more than seven.

"I won’t say they got lucky tonight, but they got lucky tonight," senior forward Christian Standhardinger said. "We couldn’t pull out the win, but I still have a lot of faith in our team because we just keep fighting."

Keith Shamburger, who returned to the starting lineup after sitting the first half against Cal State Northridge last week, was particularly off; he shot 1-for-9 and missed all five of his 3s.

UH wasn’t bad defensively, allowing 43.9 percent shooting. But the Gauchos came up clutch from deep to put the game away, while UH went 3-for-18 on 3-pointers. Michael Bryson’s third triple with 1:21 left sent the crowd of less than 5,000 to the exits with the visitors up by a dozen. It was one of three triples UCSB hit late in the game with the shot clock ticking down.

"Our players were able to hit big shots when they needed to," said Bryson, who scored 18. "That was the biggest difference in the game. We were able to separate when we got stops."

UH let several prime opportunities to eat into UCSB’s lead slip away, most notably a turnover on a 5-on-1 fast break when Quincy Smith air-mailed a lob pass out of bounds with 5:56 left. Had UH converted, it would have made it a four-point game.

Fotu had a streak of eight games of 50 percent or better shooting come to an end. He went 7-for-16, largely against Williams.

"It was a mixed bag," Fotu said of the fronting defense on Williams. "He’s a big guy; he definitely was 275 pounds. … He was so hard to get around. … It took a lot of energy out of me to play defense on him, box him out. Try to front him all the time and go down and play offense. It definitely did affect our offensive game."

Guard Taran Brown chipped in 13 for UCSB, which fought UH evenly on the glass.

UH took a three-point lead into halftime, but UCSB drew even with a 3-pointer to open the second half. The teams swapped the lead eight times in the first five minutes of the period.

"We went man (in the second half) and started matching up, got a little more competitive, a little tougher," UCSB coach Bob Williams said. "I thought that was the difference in the game for us. Then guys start hitting some shots … and they didn’t shoot the ball well."

Williams swatted Standhardinger off the glass to ignite a fast-break layup, then converted two at the line with 12:22 to play for an 8-0 run and a nine-point lead.

UH responded with a fast-break lob layup from Keith Shamburger to Spearman. Coming out of a timeout, Spearman hit two free throws to cut the lead to three, then took a charge at the other end as the crowd roared.

The Rainbows’ momentum played out, though, and UCSB built its lead back up to 62-54 on a Brown 3-pointer with 6:43 to play.

BIG WEST MEN

Thursday
UC Santa Barbara 75, Hawaii 64
UC Davis 90, CS Northridge 86, OT
UC Riverside 72, CS Fullerton 69
UC Irvine 61, Long Beach State 58

Saturday
Cal Poly at Hawaii
UC Irvine at UC Davis
CS Fullerton at CS Northridge
Long Beach State at UC Riverside

UC SANTA BARBARA 75, HAWAII 64

GAUCHOS (15-6, 6-2 BWC)

RAINBOW WARRIORS (15-7, 4-4 BWC)

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

Halftime — Hawaii 37 UC Santa Barbara 34.
3-points goals — UCSB 8-22 (Brown 3-7, Bryson 3-8, Harmon 2-2, Childress 0-1, Green 0-1, Brewe 0-1, Boswell 0-2). Hawaii 3-19 (Enos 1-2, Spearman 1-5, Nevels 1-6, Standhardinger 0-1, Shamburger 0-5). Steals — UCSB 4 (Harmond, Williams, Bryson, Boswell). Hawaii 6 (Shamburger 2, Nevels 2, Smith 2). Blocked shots — UCSB 9 (Williams 5, Brewe 2, Bryson 2). Hawaii 2 (Rozitis 2). Officials — Daryl Gelinas, Tom Nally, Justin Van Duynel. A—Not reported.