A road sweep was within reach for the University of Hawaii basketball team on Saturday.

UC Riverside forward Arinze Chidom instead sent the Rainbow Warriors home with a split.

Chidom, the Highlanders’ leading scorer, tossed in a hook shot in the paint with two seconds left to give UC Riverside a 70-68 win in the second game of the Big West series at SRC Arena in Riverside, Calif.

Chidom’s shot gave him a team-high 15 points and the Highlanders (4-2, 1-1 BWC) rebounded from Friday’s 88-83 loss to hand the Rainbow Warriors (3-1, 1-1) their first defeat of the season.

“I’m a big believer in experiences good and bad can help you moving forward if you handle it right,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in a phone interview. “Right now it hurts.

“We gave up two key 3s, both off lapses … and we missed some good looks late. That’s the game sometimes. … I feel great belief in what our team can continue to become.”

The painful finish overshadowed a brilliant shooting performance by Hawaii forward Casdon Jardine. The senior transfer scored a season-high 26 points on 10-for-12 shooting, including 4-for-4 from 3-point range. Jardine also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

Guard Junior Madut, who scored 21 points on Friday, missed his first six shots before heating up in the second half to finish with nine points. Forward James Jean-Marie was held to six points a day after leading the ’Bows with 24 points.

“The beauty of our team is we have other guys who can score there,” Ganot said. “Casdon, it was his night on the offensive end but I thought (guards) Biwali (Bayles) and Jovon (McClanahan) gave us a lift off the bench. But Casdon, obviously, can be a handful.”

Bayles finished with seven points and two assists and McClanahan drained both of his 3-point attempts and had three assists.

After the Highlanders dominated the boards on Friday, Hawaii outrebounded UCR 33-29 on Saturday. But the ’Bows committed 15 turnovers, up from seven in the opener, and the Highlanders converted 21 points off takeaways.

UC Riverside took a 35-34 lead into halftime and opened the second half by hitting its first five shots in a 12-1 run.

Jardine sparked the UH comeback with a couple of buckets in the paint and a 3-pointer by Madut, his first basket of the game, cut UCR’s lead to 51-49.

UH caught the Highlanders at 56-56 on two Bayles free throws and took the lead with 7:34 left on Jardine’s fourth 3-pointer of the game.

UH held a 66-62 lead when Flynn Cameron hit a 3-pointer from the top to cut the lead to one with 1:15 left.

After Jardine scored on a step-back mid-range jumper, UCR center Jock Perry hit a 3-pointer from the right side to tie the game at 68-68 with 34 seconds left.

“He’s a really good shooting big man and we’d done a good job on him,” Ganot said. “We lapsed, they kicked it out and he hit an open 3. It was the first 3 we gave up from him and it was a big one.”

After a UH timeout, Justin Webster’s missed 3-pointer went out of bounds and after a review possession was awarded to the Highlanders with 16 seconds left.

The Highlanders worked the ball to Chidom in the post, and UCR’s leading scorer curled into the lane and hooked the game-winner over UH center Mate Colina.

“We tried to make things difficult for him … but when he got deep touches it was difficult for us,” Ganot said. “He got lost in there and he got too deep a catch.

“We put ourselves in that position where they got a good look in the end, so we have to live and learn. A lot of stuff we can look at from these two games moving forward.”