For the Hawaii men’s basketball team, the seeds will be planted in a Northern California city that started as a farming community.

The two-game road series against UC Davis will determine the Rainbow Warriors’ seed in next week’s Big West tournament in Las Vegas. The ’Bows, in sixth place at 8-8, need to win at least one game against the Aggies to avoid the possibility of playing in the play-in round for the seventh-through-10th seeds.

“I don’t want to split these two games,” UH guard Justin Webster said. “ I want to win these two games as far as seeding goes.”

Because of the pandemic-related cancellations, the Big West decided every team but UC San Diego, which in the transitional period from Division II, would earn a berth in the league tournament. The standings — and seedings — are based on winning percentages. UH has played eight weekends in a row without interruption. Eleven of UC Davis’ games were canceled, including eight against league opponents. The Aggies are third at 5-3, having played half as many league-counting games as the ’Bows.

“We knew coming in this would be an imperfect world in terms of whether it’s the seedings and how everything figures out,” UCD coach Jim Les said. “We haven’t got caught up in that. I don’t think anybody can get too worried about it. You’ve got to take care of business. You’ve got to win the games that are put before you, and whatever happens, happens.”

The Aggies have won five in a row, including two in overtime. In their past four games, the Aggies’ average margin was 3.3 points.

Sophomore guards Ezra Manjon (15.9 points per game) and Elijah Pepper (16.6 in league play) are scoring threats from all distances. Manjon was the Big West’s top freshman last year. But guard Damion Squire, who is averaging 12.1 points, has provided an energetic boost. Christian Anigwe, a 6-9 transfer from San Jose State, has more offensive rebounds (26) than defensive boards (23).

The Aggies also rely on several half-court schemes — zones, traps, man-to-man — to force 17.7 turnovers per game.

“When we’re right defensively, and have some presence about us and execute our schemes defensively, good things tend to happen for us,” Les said.

The ’Bows have navigated through zones the past few weeks. The past weekend, the ’Bows were aggressive on so-called hustle plays and rebounding. But Long Beach State’s full-court press fueled the Beach’s late comeback.

UH coach Eran Ganot said the ’Bows are working to avoid offensive droughts and sustain “defensive discipline.”

In recent games, guards Noel Coleman, Biwali Bayles and JoVon McClanahan have hit timely shots, and forward Justin Hemsley has added a 3-point touch to his active defense and rebounding.

Webster also has vowed to become more assertive offensively in the first half. In the past five full games he played, Webster averaged 2.8 points in the first half and 9.6 after the intermission. Those splits do not include the series against Cal State Northridge when a non-coronavirus ailment kept him from playing in the second half of one game and all of the next day’s rematch. Webster, who is fully healthy, was instrumental in the sweep of Long Beach State.

“I plan on being more aggressive and looking to find more ways to get my teammates involved in this Davis series,” Webster said.