The University of Hawaii is preparing for the possibility that Saturday’s basketball game against Long Beach State will be the first hoops sellout at the Stan Sheriff Center in nearly 12 years.

UH (16-2, 5-0 Big West) is off to its best start through 18 games since the Fabulous Five era of the early 1970s. A season-high turnstile crowd of 8,114 (9,289 tickets issued) attended last Saturday’s 78-62 UH win over UC Davis, the team’s eighth victory in a row.

“I think there’s a good chance (of a sellout),” UH athletic director David Matlin said Wednesday. “The presales are pretty strong right now. So we need to prepare for that opportunity. But I was real encouraged with the Davis game, so we’re excited for a big crowd on Saturday.

“We’re a little ahead of where we were last week at this time.”

In the 22-year history of the 10,300-seat Sheriff Center, there have been 21 sellouts — but none since March 22, 2004, when UH edged Nebraska, 84-83, in the second round of the NIT.

The game against LBSU (9-12, 3-3), set to tip-off at 8 p.m., is the nightcap of a women’s-men’s doubleheader. The Rainbow Wahine play UC Irvine at 5:30 p.m. UH is selling individual men’s tickets for admission into both games; the arena will not be cleared out in between.

UH coach Eran Ganot has stumped for additional fan turnout before recent home games. The theme for Saturday’s game is “Cartoon Character Night.”

The Rainbows are 14-1 at the Sheriff this season, with the only loss coming to current No. 1 Oklahoma by three points. Ganot thanked the fans for the consistently raucous setting and called the arena a “crown jewel and true home-court advantage.”

Ganot said in a message to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “We have five home games remaining and should start thinking and dreaming big in terms of our crowd, beginning with a tough game this Saturday against Long Beach State. A sellout shouldn’t be a crazy notion but a reality. As I have mentioned we are in this together! Let’s come together to make this happen — first sellout in over a decade. Would be huge for our program and for the state!”

Women’s hoops season-ticket holders who don’t have men’s tickets will gain admission with their usual tickets and are invited to find open seating for the men’s game, Matlin said.

Matlin was asked about the possibility of those fans not being able to find an open seat.

“We discussed that possibility,” he said. “We look at all the trends … we’re monitoring our ticket sales. If we think there’s going to be a sellout … we would probably hold a section for them in the upper level, if need be.”

Alternate parking sites on campus are also being discussed should the lower campus parking structure fill to capacity, he said.

Twelve of the 21 sellouts in Sheriff history came in the 1997-98 season of the “Dynamic Duo,” Anthony Carter and Alika Smith.