As the Hawaii basketball team flew back from another successful mainland trip Sunday, the runway on Oahu was clear for more than just a typical landing.

Thanks to impressive victories at Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine last week — keeping the Rainbow Warriors’ conference road record perfect at 6-0 — a share of the Big West regular-season title can be claimed this week within the friendly dome that is the Stan Sheriff Center.

If UH (22-3, 11-1 BWC) manages a sweep of seventh-place UC Riverside (13-15, 4-8) on Thursday and fifth-place Cal State Northridge (10-17, 5-8) on Saturday’s senior night, they’ll have at least a stake in the title. Irvine and Long Beach State (9-3 each) trail UH by two games and can do no better than 13-3. The Anteaters and 49ers play each other at Irvine on Wednesday.

Looking further ahead to next week’s road games at UC Davis and LBSU, the Rainbows can take their first outright conference title since 2002 by winning three of their last four regular-season games.

The Rainbows sensed the enormity of the step they took Saturday in a jubilant visitors locker room at Irvine’s Bren Events Center following the 75-71 win, in which UH outscored UCI 9-0 in the final two minutes after trailing by five. It was the team’s sixth straight win and 14th in 15 games.

UH coach Eran Ganot was exhausted but elated in a phone interview some two hours after the game.

“It is loud in (the Bren),” Ganot said. “And in the huddles in the floor, you don’t even realize it. Every single guy was just locked into each other. Everybody was on the same page. One mind-set, great belief, and it’s just very impressive to do that under those circumstances with those kind of stakes, and being down most of the game.”

Forward Stefan Jankovic is a strong Big West Player of the Week candidate after scoring a career-high 34 points on 12-for-13 shooting in a 69-63 win at CSUN on Thursday, and following it up with 25 points at UCI on 7-for-12 shooting from the field and 9-for-12 at the line.

“When something like this happens, you need guys to make big plays,” Ganot said of the comeback from 11 points down in the second half at UCI. “I think you can name every single guy. That’s what happened, that’s what you need.”

>> Point guard Roderick Bobbitt impacted the game in almost every way possible: seven points, six assists, six rebounds and five steals, and made two clutch free throws in the final minute.

>> Wing Aaron Valdes scored 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting and had the go-ahead 3-pointer from the right corner with 40.1 seconds left.

>> Guard Isaac Fleming, still feeling his way back from an ankle injury, had a key 3-pointer from the opposite corner during the second-half rally, temporarily giving UH the lead with his only field goal.

>> Freshman Sheriff Drammeh took a charge, his specialty, and hit two big pull-up jumpers against Irvine’s zone defense.

>> Forward Mike Thomas grabbed three offensive rebounds against the Anteaters’ massive front line, scored 10 points, and clinched the game with a free throw with under a second to play.

>> Forward Sai Tummala went 3-for-3 on 3-pointers among his 11 points, keeping UH within striking distance before he fouled out.

“Hawaii played very well. You gotta give them credit,” Anteaters coach Russell Turner told UCI media. “They came in here and beat us. I didn’t think that was going to happen, but we’ve got to show our character with the way that we respond and get ready for Long Beach.”

Bobbitt’s latest steals binge raised his two-year UH total to 156. He leapfrogged Alika Smith (152) for second on the career list and needs just five more swipes to surpass the 160 of record- holder Tom Henderson.

UH matched last season’s win total — and Ganot equaled Benjy Taylor for the most victories for a first-year UH head coach — with at least five games still to play. The program wins record of 27 set by the 01-02 squad is no longer safe.

Hawaii is tied with three other teams — No. 1 Villanova, No. 8 Xavier and unranked Arkansas-Little Rock — for the fewest losses in the country.

The Rainbows could pick up more votes in today’s Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls after receiving a smattering of points last week. They haven’t been ranked in the AP poll since near the end of the 2001-02 season, when they checked in at 25th for a week between the WAC and NCAA tournaments.

UH has done no better than fourth place since 2002 in either the WAC or Big West. But thanks to the hot streak, the Rainbows are guaranteed a top-three seed in the Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif., March 10-12.