UC Irvine’s five-game losing streak back in December was one of the best things that could’ve happened to the Anteaters.

Gone were guard Luke Nelson, the 2016-17 Big West player of the year, and fellow first-teamer Jaron Martin, and it showed. The young ’Eaters played one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country and were consumed by squads like Nevada, Montana and Saint Mary’s.

“Rather than fracture, point fingers, we used the adversity we experienced to come together and grow stronger, be tougher,” Irvine coach Russell Turner said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I’m hoping that’s something that benefits this team down the line this season and down the line in these guys’ careers. Because the difference between winning and losing is a pretty fine line. You know, our team this year has shown some of that.”

That’s especially relevant now for Hawaii, which takes a five-game skid into the Bren Events Center to face Irvine, one of the hottest teams in the Big West riding five straight victories. It’s a convergence of teams that have drifted drastically apart in the conference standings, Irvine (13-14, 8-3 BWC) up to second and Hawaii (13-10, 4-6) down to sixth.

A win over the Anteaters, preventing UH’s longest losing streak since 2009-10, will require the Rainbow Warriors to move mountains, or at least mountainous men.

Turner’s Irvine teams emphasize size, defense and rebounding above all else — recall the 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye and springy Will Davis II of the recent past — and have stayed true to that in what could’ve been a rebuilding year coming off five straight 20-win seasons.

Irvine is the Big West leader in a host of defensive categories: scoring defense (68.1); field-goal percentage defense (.392); rebounding margin (plus-7.7); and blocks (4.3).

“Oh, I love playing Irvine. That’s probably our toughest matchup, I think,” senior forward Mike Thomas said. “I mean, they had Mamadou for the first three years. It was really difficult to play inside with him. But just the passion both teams play with, the tenacity, the trash talking and all that. I like playing against Russell Turner and his team. It’s a fun game.”

Hawaii places similar emphasis on defending and rebounding but has struggled to do those things consistently in Big West play; it’s allowed 54.2 percent conversion from the field in its league losses.

UH coach Eran Ganot expects constant waves of Irvine bigs to crash into his undersized post rotation of Thomas (13.7 ppg), Gibson Johnson (9.7) and Jack Purchase (7.1) for the full 40 minutes.

“Yeah, they’re going to throw a flurry of them, and we’re going to do a better job of using our depth inside, too,” Ganot said. “I think they make it a focus area, not just on the glass but to put it inside. … We talk about inside-out all the time as well, but I think they’ve put it in more than any other team.”

UCI is known to play a healthy amount of zone defense, which has given UH trouble of late.

Irvine has leaned on 6-10 junior forward Jonathan Galloway (7.7 rpg), the reigning BWC defensive player of the year, to set the tone for four sophomores starting around him. Guards Evan Leonard (12.9) and Eyassu Worku (11.2) lead in scoring and the rapidly improving Tommy Rutherford, at 6-8, adds 10.9 and 6.4 rebounds. They can even roll out 320-pound behemoth Brad Greene.

Turner said UH has been “tough to judge,” noting the Rainbows’ home wins over contenders UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis.

“They’ve got an interesting combo with those three, because of Purchase’s ability to shoot the 3, stretch the floor and pass the ball,” Turner said. “I think that we have more guys and maybe more size, but I’ve got a lot of respect for Thomas and Johnson and Purchase. We know those guys are really good players who’ve all been part of championship teams.”

UCI took last year’s game at the Bren in runaway fashion, 84-56. The 28-point margin in its favor was easily its largest in a series that’s tilted toward the yellow and blue; Irvine won six of the past eight meetings.