Stumbled and humbled.

If Hawaii needed a history lesson that conference regular-season titles are hard to come by, there it was on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Unheralded UC Riverside played with all the poise of a contender — seemingly sapping it from the first-place Rainbow Warriors — and escaped with a 77-71 victory in UH’s penultimate home game of the season.

UH saw its six-game winning streak snapped, dropping the ‘Bows to 22-4 overall and 11-2 in the Big West Conference. It still holds sole possession of first place heading into Saturday’s sold-out senior night against Cal State Northridge, and if the Rainbows can respond with three straight wins to close the regular season, including two on the road, the outright title is theirs.

Rainbows Isaac Fleming and Mike Thomas were asked if the defeat was a setback to their title hopes.

“Not at all,” Fleming said. “Every time we lost this year we went on an eight-game, nine-game winning streak.”

That won’t happen if the Rainbows play like they did Thursday, with a loss of composure at critical moments, an over-reliance on 3-pointers and lapses on defense against the fifth-place team in the league. Both league losses have come at home.

“We have a lot at stake, a lot to play for. Things we need to work on,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We just gotta put ourselves back together quick. Big game Saturday.”

An uninspired first half gave way to a feisty second. UH was assessed three technicals in the period, including one on point guard Roderick Bobbitt, who jawed at UCR coach Dennis Cutts as things unraveled in the final seconds. UCR was T’d up twice earlier in the game.

“That’s information I gotta find out about,” Ganot said. “Whatever it is, that can’t happen. Obviously there were several technicals in this game, both teams, both ways.”

UH shot just 38.1 percent from the field to UCR’s 43.9 percent and got outrebounded by four, areas the Rainbows have typically outperformed their foes.

Aaron Valdes led UH with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting, including a career-high five 3-pointers made. Bobbitt scored 17 with seven assists and no turnovers, and forward Stefan Jankovic had 12 points and 10 rebounds but was quiet for long stretches.

“We went to Janks early, they doubled, and then we stopped going to him,” Ganot said. “When we made our run, we got an inside-out attack. But when we were just passing it on the perimeter, we’re not as effective. We can’t get to the line that way. We settled some. We need to do better.”

The Highlanders (14-15, 5-8) snapped a four-game losing streak behind 20 points from Jaylen Bland, 19 from Secean Johnson and 18 from DJ Sylvester. Cutts elected to run offense through Johnson late in the game, and the forward responded by making the most of his 14 trips to the foul line, making 13. UCR was 27-for-32 (84.4 percent) from the line as a team and made them when it mattered late.

Riverside avenged a nine-point loss to UH last month and earned its first win in Honolulu in five tries. UCR has won three straight on the road, in contrast to four straight losses at home.

“I just kept telling them they were going to reward themselves at some point, and that’s a big reward tonight,” Cutts said.

He declined to say exactly what was said between himself and Bobbitt; the conversation lasted through the handshake line. There was a police escort outside of the Highlanders’ locker room afterward.

“I just think this is college basketball,” Cutts said. “I think it’s competitive, they’re the first-place team and we wanted to come in here and show we can be a good team. I think Eran does an unbelievable job.”

UH trailed by four at halftime and spent most of the second half attempting a comeback, but UCR had other ideas. The Highlanders went up double digits when Jankovic was T’d up under the basket with 13:41 to play, and still led by 10 with under 10 minutes to go.

Valdes hit a 3-pointer, then a reverse layup in transition to get UH within a point.

The Rainbows rallied to take their first lead of the half at 67-65, then 69-68 for the last time on a teardrop shot by Bobbitt.

From there, Riverside went 9-for-10 at the line to score the remainder of their points and seize the win. A tying 3-point attempt by Sai Tummala was off the mark with 12 seconds left and UH had to take fouls.

“It’s a wake-up call,” UH’s Thomas said.

BIG WEST MEN

Thursday

UC Riverside 77, Hawaii 71

Cal State Fullerton 78, Cal Poly 77

UC Santa Barbara 78, CSUN 63

Saturday

Cal State Northridge at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

UC Riverside at Long Beach State

UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Fullerton

UC Irvine at UC Davis

UC Riverside 77, Hawaii 71

Key — fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; r: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points; a: assists; to: turnovers; min: minutes played.

Halftime — UC Riverside 36, Hawaii 323-point goals — UC Riverside 8-20 (Bland 5-11, Sylvester 2-3, Thomas 1-4, Boezeman 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Hawaii 7-27 (Valdes 5-9, Bobbitt 2-6, Drammeh 0-1, Fleming 0-2, Jankovic 0-2, Smith 0-2, Thomas 0-2, Tummala 0-3). Steals — UC Riverside 4 (Bland 3, Sylvester). Hawaii 9 (Valdes 4, Jankovic 2, Fleming, Smith, Thomas). Blocked shots — UC Riverside 1 (Dijkstra). Hawaii 3 (Jovanovic 2, Thomas). Turnovers — UC Riverside 15 (Thomas 6, Johnson 4, Bland 2, Sylvester 2, Dijkstra). Hawaii 9 (Jankovic 3, Smith 3, Jovanovic, Thomas, Valdes). Technical fouls — UC Riverside 2 (Johnson, Sylvester). Hawaii 2 (Bobbitt, Thomas) Officials — Daryl Galinas, Kurt Walker, Brady Chelette. A — 6,624