Someone’s woes will become a win tonight

Someone’s losing streak comes to an end at the Stan Sheriff Center tonight.

UC Riverside ended its 10-game slide at Hawaii’s expense on Wednesday night, extending Hawaii’s woes to four straight games. Now the Rainbow Warriors face a Cal State Northridge team that has lost five consecutive contests.

UH has seven regular-season games remaining to show that it is more akin to the team that won four games in a row in January than the one that is winless in February, including the 64-60 setback at the Sheriff three nights ago.

“Just trying to get reunited. Trying to find some things to get us off this losing streak,” guard Leland Green said after Friday’s practice. “Try to come together as a team and try to get this thing done.”

Said coach Eran Ganot after the session, “I think the guys are in a good place. They’ve had a good approach.”

UH (13-9, 4-5) has beaten CSUN (5-19, 2-8) seven straight times, including 65-46 at the Matadome on Jan. 6, when the Matadors were held to 27.5 percent shooting from the floor. Mike Thomas had 24 points and 11 rebounds and Drew Buggs passed for a season-high 11 assists.

That game launched UH’s four-game winning streak into first place, as distant as that seems from this sixth-place juncture.

“They’ve improved since our game,” Ganot said of CSUN. “That was the game we turned it around in terms of our foundation defensively and on the glass. We imposed our will early, and early in the second half. And it got us on that four-game winning streak. We really got away from that, and obviously we’ve gotta get back to that.”

UH went from winning the season’s first five close games (decided by five points or fewer) to losing its last three. It was 47-1 under Ganot when leading with five minutes left in regulation, but now has lost the past two such games. And two straight opponents have hit 10 or more 3-pointers.

Ganot’s lineup shakeup marked the first reserve appearances in the past 50-plus games played for frontcourt mainstays Thomas and Gibson Johnson. Buggs and Sheriff Drammeh also came off the bench.

The Rainbows might go back to their regulars from the jump tonight.

“You don’t want to be dealing with those things at this point in the year, but you also don’t want to allow it to become bigger and drag you down,” Ganot said. “You judge that by how guys respond.”

CSUN’s only win in Manoa to date came on Dec. 3, 1998, well before the teams’ Big West meetings. A fourth straight season sweep is in play — but so is UH’s longest losing streak since 2011-12.

Matadors coach Reggie Theus said he’s concerned about his eighth-place team’s many woes but offered some perspective on UH as well.

“Coach Eran, he has his team ready to play all the time. Focused on the right things,” Theus said. “You talk about a game like (today), I expect them to come out absolutely slobbering at the mouth because they need a win. So do we.

“In Hawaii, the university has different types of pressure,” Theus continued. “The media’s different, the public perception is different. So when they’re not doing well, people around here are not used to seeing that from this basketball team. So I expect them to come out and be pretty fired up.”

With Cal State Fullerton’s breakthrough win here two Saturdays ago — courtesy of Kyle Allman’s 40-point game on 16-for-19 shooting — CSUN is now the only Big West team without a league win at the Sheriff.

CSUN is fighting to avoid becoming the one Big West team that misses the eight-team conference tournament. Riverside is now only a game back in the win column.

The Matadors are coming off a 77-56 loss at UC Irvine on Wednesday in which they were outscored 46-14 in the paint.

Senior forward Tavrion Dawson, a top-15 scorer in program history, leads his team with 16.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

“We’re small, we’re height-challenged,” Theus said. “That’s been our Achilles heel all year. That’s something we’re fighting, no matter who we’re playing.”