A review of a humbling defeat left the Hawaii men’s basketball team with several issues to address.

Offensively, the Rainbow Warriors faltered from the free-throw line and beyond the 3-point arc in a 17-point home loss to Eastern Washington on Tuesday.

But the other end of the court was the greater source of frustration.

"We need to do a much better job of playing with passion and guarding," UH head coach Gib Arnold said a day later. "To give up 56 points and 56 percent (shooting in the second half), I don’t think we’ve ever done that and hope we never do that again."

The Rainbows had prided themselves on defense under Arnold and enter tonight’s game against Pacific still holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting. Which made Eastern Washington’s second-half blitz, in which the Eagles hit 17 of 30 shots from the field, in an 89-72 loss especially agonizing.

While it was a performance the Rainbows (1-2) would like to leave in the past, there were lessons to be implemented first before taking on Pacific (2-1) at 7:30 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"We have a bad taste in our mouth, getting blown out like that," sophomore forward Trevor Wiseman said. "But we also use it as motivation to get better. … Coach really got on us about playing defense and turnovers and he got on us about rebounding."

The Rainbows focused on those facets while turning up the intensity in the two days since, and worked up an appetite with a Thanksgiving morning workout before getting together for a holiday meal.

"I have liked the energy the last two practices," Arnold said Thursday. "More what we expect out of this group."

Tonight’s game will be the first of two meetings between the Rainbows and Tigers over the next two weeks. UH will travel to Stockton, Calif., on Dec. 6 for the back end of the home-and-away series between the future Big West Conference foes.

"We thought it would be a good idea to do something like that, to play a future conference team and see what their gym is like," Arnold said. "We’re not looking past this year by any means, but it was available and thought it’s not a bad idea. UOP has traditionally been a good team in the Big West."

Bob Thomason, now in his 23rd season as head coach at Pacific, will be chasing a milestone against the Rainbows. He enters the game with 405 career wins there, tying him with Jerry Tarkanian for the Big West’s all-time victories record.

Thomason brings in a group led by junior guard Markus Duran’s 12.3 points per game and sophomore center Khalil Kelley’s 6.3 rebounds.

"(Thomason) runs a lot of stuff, and we’re going to have to be ready for a lot of different actions," Arnold said. "He’s an extremely good coach, he’s won forever and he’s got them playing well."