SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. » The road turned rough for the Hawaii men’s basketball team Thursday night.

In their final regular-season game on the mainland, the Rainbow Warriors dropped an 86-77 decision to UC Santa Barbara.

The game was marred by a fan running onto the court in the first half.

The Rainbow Warriors head home for their final regular-season game against Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.

The loss ended a shot at third place in the Big West Conference. UH (19-10, 8-7) will finish fourth. UCSB (19-8, 11-4), meanwhile, has a slim shot to tie UC Irvine for first place, heading into Saturday’s final games before the conference tournament.

Christian Standhardinger led the Rainbow Warriors with 18 points, and Keith Shamburger had 16 points.

Alan Williams scored 18 points to lead five UCSB players in double figures. Kyle Boswell scored 17, Zalmico Harmon had 16, Michael Bryson 12 and Mitch Brewe contributed 11.

Hawaii, which lost by 11 to the Gauchos at home in February, looked out of sorts in the first half against a tough UCSB defense. The Rainbow Warriors fell behind 30-14 as Bryson knocked down three 3-point baskets during a 16-2 run.

Shamburger hit a 3 to stop the run. But the Gauchos erupted again, scoring seven straight points.

"They were nailing 3s and it looked like we were playing a little bit tired and gave up way too many looks at the basket," Hawaii coach Gib Arnold said. "Our interior defense, I thought, was good on Al Williams. That was one of our keys, but too many open looks and late closeouts, and they made us pay."

UH held Williams to six points in the first half, but Bryson scored 11, including three 3-pointers. The Gauchos made seven of 10 from behind the arc in the first 10 minutes.

"Give them credit, because the way we were playing, we were shrinking the court and giving them open looks and they were able to knock down those 3s," said Arnold. "We started out a step slow and they started out super hot and that’s a bad mix if you’re doing that on the road in a big game like this."

Shamburger hit his second trey of the first half to make it 30-17.

Then things got crazy.

UH forward Brandon Spearman grabbed an offensive rebound and went up for a shot. There was plenty of contact, but no foul was called. An upset Spearman shouted at the referee as he ran down the court and was hit with a technical foul. On the bench, an enraged Arnold had to be restrained by players. He, too, was assessed a technical foul.

While all this was going on, a UCSB fan ran onto the court and goaded the Hawaii players before running back into the student section. As he ran off, his cell phone dropped onto the floor. A member of the game staff picked up the phone and chased after the fan into the student section. The fan was apprehended by security.

"I don’t know how that happened," Arnold said. "I’ve never seen that before, ever, where a fan goes after a player or coach, or whatever he did. I was surprised that would happen. It didn’t affect anybody, but it was pretty awkward."

On the play involving Spearman, Arnold said his player was fouled.

"He expressed it and I expressed it and that’s part of the game," the coach said. "What’s not part of the game is having your crowd run down on the floor and push players and coaches around. That’s absolutely unacceptable and I’m surprised they let that happen."

Standhardinger tried to keep the fan away from his teammates and coaches.

"I actually pushed him away, to be honest with you, because I didn’t know what he wanted to do, like grab my teammates or coaches," said the senior forward. "I didn’t want that to happen, so I pushed him away."

There was no technical foul called against UCSB.

Once order was restored, Boswell made two of four technical free throws and then fed Williams for layup and a 34-16 UCSB lead.

Hawaii finally broke loose in the last three minutes of the first half. Standhardinger scored three straight baskets and Shamburger hit a trey to cut the deficit to 36-27.

Eric Childress buried a 3 for UCSB to give the Gauchos a 39-27 halftime lead.

UCSB continued to control the game early in the second half and built its lead to 19 (59-10).

Arnold inserted his second unit and it fought back, coming as close as seven, 72-65, on a basket by 7-footer Davis Rozitis.

Rozitis scored 11 points, Aaron Valdes 10 and Quincy Smith six off the bench.

UC SANTA BARBARA 86, HAWAII 77

RAINBOW WARRIORS (19-10, 8-7 BWC)

GAUCHOS (20-8, 11-4 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 — UC Santa Barbara 39, Hawaii 27. 3-points goals — Hawaii 6-14 (Shamburger 4-5, Valdes 1-1, Spearman 1-2, Enos 0-2, Nevels 0-4). UCSB 10-16 (Bryson 3-4, Brewe 2-2, Harmon 2-4, Boswell 2-4, Childress 1-1, Brown 0-1). Steals — Hawaii 7 (Spearman 2, Stanhardinger, Fotu, Enos, Smith, Rozitis). UCSB 5 (Harmon 2, Williams 2, Moore). Blocked shots — Hawaii 3 (Rozitis 2, Thomas). UCSB 3 (Williams 3). Officials — Mike Scyphers, Bill Vinovich, Justin Van Duyne. A—4,019.

BIG WEST MEN

Thursday
UC Santa Barbara 86, Hawaii 77
UC Riverside 78, UC Davis 65
UC Irvine 62, CS Fullerton 44
CS Northridge 91, Long Beach State 83

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

Big West tournament
March 13-15, Anaheim, Calif.