Home is where the heartburn is for the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team in the Big West Conference.

Again.

Even on senior night the Rainbow Warriors were unable to plug into the hopeful vibes and ditch the disappointment that has dogged them when it has come to conference games in the Stan Sheriff Center.

Saturday night it was UC Irvine that turned the tables with a 66-57 victory over the ‘Bows.

Not even the exhortations of the third-largest crowd of the season, 5,747, or a rousing finish by junior walk-on Zach Buscher could lift the ’Bows above .500 in Manoa in the conference — they closed out the home portion at 4-4.

UH is also .500 (3-3) on the California road in the Big West, which might have otherwise allowed them to be better than 7-7 and in the thick of the conference race, if they could have only taken better care of business at home.

And home has traditionally been one of the best things the ’Bows have had going for them year in and year out. To hear Big West coaches tell it, this is the hardest place for visitors to play. Though you’d hardly know it this year watching some of them celebrate their triumphs here.

UH (16-11 overall) has inexplicably played some of its worst basketball this season on the familiar floorboards. Witness the head-scratching losses to the worst two teams in the conference — UC Riverside, at the time the owner of a 10-game losing streak, and Cal State Northridge — this month.

Even last year, in a 14-16 finish, the ’Bows managed to prevail more often on the homecourt (5-3) in conference games.

Never mind that UH beat the first-place Anteaters (16-15, 11-4) in Irvine, Calif., this month, the ’Bows trailed most of this one, and often in double figures. They fell behind 11-9 with 13 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first half and were down 33-24 at intermission and never managed to wrestle the lead away from UCI thereafter.

At times it looked like the local basket rims were foreign to UH on a night when the Rainbow Warriors had their second-worst shooting outing of the season. They shot just 34.6 percent from the field (18 of 52) and 27.8 percent (five of 18) from 3-point range.

The frustration was well circulated, with Jack Purchase 0-for-5, Drew Buggs 4-for-14, Gibson Johnson 1-for-5 and Mike Thomas 2-for-6 in his return after a two-game injury absence.

Most bewildering was an inability to convert on free-throw attempts, where they were just 16-for-28 (57 percent) despite the flourish at the finish by Buscher. This by a UH team that had made good on 20 of 24 free-throw tries at UC Irvine. After missing the front end of four 1-and-1s the groans were audible from the stands and the applause semi-sarcastic when they finally converted to end a drought.

Then Buscher, a walk-on from ‘Iolani, entered the game in the final minute amid chants of “We Want Buscher! We Want Buscher!” and proceeded to make all four of his free-throw attempts, which passed for the night’s highlight for UH.

The inability to win on the homecourt leaves the ’Bows tied with Long Beach State for fifth place with two regular-season games — both on the road — remaining.

At least there (at UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton) next week, maybe, the ’Bows will have a better chance.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.