The UC Irvine basketball team feasted on a vulnerable low post and Hawaii’s lapses for Thursday’s 76-68 victory in the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.

A crowd of 2,223 saw the short-handed Anteaters score 44 paint points to improve to 13-6 overall and 6-1 in the Big West.

The outcome dropped the ’Bows to 14-5 and 5-2. The ’Bows complete this stretch of four games in eight days with Saturday’s road contest against UC Riverside, which is atop the Big West at 7-1.

“We’ve got to get back to work, like we always do,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “This one should hurt. But not for too long because we need to look at things we need to do better, talk about Riverside, and go from there.”

The Anteaters are reloading the frontcourt after all-league forward Collin Welp completed his eligibility at the end of the 2021-22 season, and three other posts transferred — Emmanuel Tshimanga to UC San Diego, Austin Johnson to North Carolina A&T, Hunter Ruck to Biola. This year’s top interior player, 7-foot Bent Leuchten, recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and did not play on Thursday. Chazz Hutchinson, a 6-9 forward, also was not available.

But Dean Keeler and Akiva McBirney-Griffin, a freshman making his third start in a row, were able to control the low post.

“We were beaten on the boards for the first time in league,” Ganot said of the Anteaters’ 37-33 advantage in rebounds.

The ’Bows averaged plus-five rebounds in their first six Big West games.

“We had too many lapses, which you can’t do against any team, let alone a good team on their home court,” Ganot said.

This season, the ’Bows were holding opponents to 39.3% shooting, including 27.2% on 3s. The Anteaters’ accuracy was 41.1% and 33.3% on Thursday.

Ganot said the ’Bows’ lapses included getting beat on back-door cuts, going under ball screens, and not being consistent on free-throw block-outs.

“Missed assignments,” Ganot said. “Way too many of those.”

The results were a 14-7 deficit in second-chance points, and relinquishing 17 points and 10 rebounds to UCI guard Dawson Baker, 18 points to off guard DJ Davis, and McBirney-Griffin’s career-high 11 points.

“Part of our defensive deal has been very limited lapses,” Ganot said. “You’ll have them here and there because nobody works a perfect game. But the fundamental lapses we’ve had over the years have been very minimal. We clearly had the most we we’ve had in a game, and they took advantage of them.”

UCI scored 12 of the first 14 points and never trailed.

The ’Bows closed to 37-34 with 17 minutes to play but would get no closer.

“We tried to fight back,” Ganot said. “We were down 14, cut it to 3, and you’re playing catch-up against a good team on the road. We had to be better, more locked in, more physical. Give them credit.”

UH point guard JoVon McClanahan missed his first five shots but scored all 14 of his points in the final seven minutes.

“I’m proud of our guys to keep fighting at the end of the game,” Ganot said. “But we didn’t come out of the gate really well. They were the more physical team.”