Consider the favor returned.

UC Irvine channeled the emotion and frustration of an overtime home loss to Hawaii last month, then knocked off the Rainbow Warriors in a crucial overtime game on UH’s home court, 60-56 on Thursday night.

The defeat at the Stan Sheriff Center in which the ‘Bows were held to season lows in points and field-goal percentage (29.6 percent) all but ensured fourth-place UH (18-8, 7-5) will not contend for the Big West regular-season championship with four games remaining before the conference tournament.

The intense Anteaters (18-9, 9-2) slapped the court repeatedly on defense and remained in pole position in the league with their fifth straight victory.

"We’re pleased to come out of here with a win against a Hawaii team I really respect," Irvine coach Russell Turner said. "When you dictate the game with defense you have a chance to win."

An inability to defend home court against the best of the Big West continues to haunt UH, which also dropped games at the Sheriff to contenders UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State. The ‘Bows went without a field goal for the final three minutes of the second half and all of overtime, in which it went 0-for-5.

UH will try to better its 3-3 league home record on Saturday against UC Davis (8-18, 3-8).

"I mean, season’s not over, so we gotta keep our heads up and keep winning games," guard Garrett Nevels said.

Besides catching a glimpse of 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndiaye, the crowd of nearly 6,000 arrived hoping to see their team earn a sweep of Irvine and match the highest win total of Gib Arnold’s four-year tenure as head coach.

That didn’t transpire, as four players scored in double figures for the balanced Anteaters. Arnold’s postgame locker room meeting with his team was a brief one.

"I told the guys I was proud of them," the coach said. "I thought we played really hard. I thought we played great defensively. Didn’t turn the ball over (eight times), (and) we shared it. I’ll never be upset, I’ll never feel bad, I’ll never lose a minute of sleep over a loss where I thought we played hard, played smart and played together."

Still, no UH player with multiple field-goal attempts shot better than 40 percent. The huge wingspan of Ndiaye and UCI’s aggressive 2-3 zone defense had a lot to do with that.

UCI sought vengeance for UH’s wild 90-86 overtime stunner on the Anteaters’ homecoming night last month. This time, the ‘Eaters dictated their preferred deliberate pace most of the way; UH’s looks in transition were few.

UH forward Isaac Fotu, who went for a career-high 30 points on 13-for-16 shooting in the last meeting, was held to 11 points and 10 rebounds, and he wasn’t allowed open looks from mid-range this time.

"We let them control the tempo tonight," Fotu said. "They were just following us everywhere we went on the short corner, making sure we didn’t get those shots again."

Forward Christian Standhardinger led UH with 12 points, but 10 of them came in the first half and the last two were on free throws in the final seconds of the extra period with the game decided.

The Bows were 4-for-17 on 3-pointers.

"In order to beat em, you gotta hit some outside shots," Arnold said. "You gotta hit 3s, that brings em out and (our offense) is a little more effective. To beat that team, you gotta be hitting on all cylinders."

UH attempted to front Ndiaye whenever possible, but the Senegalese center still stood a full foot taller than UH’s starting frontcourt of Fotu and Standhardinger. He finished with 11 points and nine boards.

UH took a 26-25 lead a halftime despite its poorest-shooting first half of the season (27.3 percent).

Thursday
UC Irvine 60, Hawaii 56, OT
CS Fullerton 67, Cal Poly 59
Long Beach State 79, UC Davis 57
UC Santa Barbara 55, UC Riverside 54

Saturday
UC Davis at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC Irvine at CS Northridge
CS Fullerton at UC Santa Barabara
UC Riverside at Cal Poly

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

Halftime — Hawaii 26, UC Irvine 25.

Regulation — Hawaii 51, UC Irvine 51

3-points goals — UC Irvine 6-22 (Souza 2-5, Nelson 2-10, Wright 1-1, McNealy 1-3, Young 0-3). Hawaii 4-17 (Nevels 3-6, Shamburger 1-5, Standhardinger 0-1, Enos 0-1, Spearman 0-4). Steals — UC Irvine 4 (Davis, McNealy, Ndiaye, Wright). Hawaii 5 (Fotu 2, Shamburger, Nevels, Standhardinger). Blocked shots — UC Irvine 5 (Davis 2, McNealy, Ndiaye, Wright). Hawaii 3 (Standhardinger 2, Rozitis). Officials — Michael Scyphers, Michael Reed, Deron White. A—Not reported