As Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara traded the lead nine times in the first half alone Thursday, at least one court-side observer at the Stan Sheriff Center was all smiles. Dennis Farrell, the commissioner of the Big West, attended UH’s narrow 70-66 home win.

A four-point difference between a visiting team that fell to 8-19 and 4-11 in the conference and the 17-11, 10-6 Rainbow Warriors has many of the fans of the home team shaking their heads. But it also speaks to the balance of the Big West and what could be an exciting conference tournament in two weeks.

"Any team on any given night can win. The team that gets hot in Anaheim wins it," Farrell said. "Outside of Long Beach State it’s a traffic jam. But even they are not unbeatable. I think it will be a thrilling tournament."

In this league, almost everyone goes to Disneyland. And whoever comes out of there victorious goes to the Big Dance.

And, as any team in this league can arise at any time, apparently any player can.

The book for opposing defenses is — or maybe WAS, before what he did Thursday — to let UH point guard Jace Tavita shoot. That’s what the Gauchos did, and Tavita responded with five 3-pointers.

"High school Jace," Arnold said. "I remember seeing him in high school and he was the go-to guy."

He even hit a couple of clutch free throws, which was Tavita’s major weakness.

Then there was Gauchos guard Kyle Boswell. It was questionable if he’d play because of a shoulder injury that kept him out of the previous two games. All he did was bomb for a game-high 27 points.

Another example of the conference’s balance. It’s not the Big 10, it’s not even the Mountain West. But it is exciting.

"Every team has good solid players," Tavita said. "They got the big guy (Alan Williams) and Boswell. They were hungry."

Hawaii showed signs of regression, and went flat early in the second half. The Rainbows threw balls away like they did in December. With Brandon Spearman injured, they had problems guarding the perimeter.

This is a game Hawaii would have lost earlier in the season. But the Rainbows took care of the ball when they had to and made their free throws down the stretch.

"Could’ve slipped away," coach Gib Arnold said. "Maybe earlier in the year it would’ve."

Arnold made a good move late in the game to put Christian Standhardinger — whose body is almost as long as his name — on Boswell.

Standhardinger is quick, athletic and energetic for his size, but it will still be interesting to see if he can check shooters consistently.

"We’re going to have to be able to guard (perimeter players) if we want to make a run in the tournament," Arnold said.

Yes, the Big West tournament championship and NCAA bid that goes with it will be up for grabs. And UH has a shot at it — but probably not if it fouls 3-point shooters and yields 12 makes from beyond the arc like it did Thursday.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser. com or 529-4783.