Respites have been few for Keith Shamburger in the past two weeks, within basketball and without it.

The Hawaii starting point guard will try to shake his recent troubles tonight when UH takes on UC Riverside at 7 at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Warriors (11-5, 0-2 Big West) as a whole seek their first conference win of the season after going 0-2 on their league road trip to Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge last week.

"I’m looking forward to a win, man," Shamburger said. "We just went up and lost two easy wins. We can’t take those back, but I’m glad we (took) those two early rather than late. So we just want to go out there and win this game."

Shamburger’s on-court struggles — 3-for-22 shooting in the past three games — came as he’s tried to play through a hip flexor. To top it off, his mother’s older sister, Gloria Twine, died last Saturday morning before UH fell 79-78 at Northridge that evening.

After playing that one with a heavy heart, Shamburger took a few days to grieve with his family in Los Angeles this week, then rejoined the team on Thursday.

Twine, who was in her late 60s, had a stroke earlier in the week, unbeknownst to Shamburger.

"It happened so fast," Shamburger said. "It’s hard for me to grip it, but I’m going good now, and it’s good to have a good (team) family out here with me to get me through this."

The junior transfer from San Jose State has gotten up some extra shots since returning.

"It just takes one game where he gets hot again," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "I want him to keep shooting. I’ve told him, ‘I want you to shoot, four, five, six 3s a game. Keep hunting your shot. It’s going to come.’ He’s a good shooter and I’m not too worried about Keith."

UH has a little more to be worried about in Riverside (6-11, 1-2), which is coming off an 81-69 win at UC Davis on Thursday. The ‘Bows had a bye, making for a one-game week in which they could focus their preparation entirely on the suddenly hot Highlanders.

Riverside came back from 19 points down at Davis, tying the program’s Division I-era record for largest comeback. It put up 54 points in the second half.

UH assistant Scott Fisher, who had the scout on Riverside, said the Highlanders did it on the defensive end and picked their spots in transition. That included a "SportsCenter"-worthy reverse alley-oop dunk by sophomore forward Taylor Johns, the Highlanders’ top scorer at 13.3 per game.

"There’s talent there, there’s enough smarts and the one thing I think about these guys is, they’re not always the prettiest team out there, but they’re quite often the team playing the hardest," Fisher said. "They’re going to be ready."

The ‘Bows must respect the 6-foot-7 Johns (22 points at Davis), as well as another double-double threat in 6-10 Australian senior center Chris Patton (12.7 points per game), who has come off the bench in Big West play.

"What we tried to do this year is get a little more balance," said Riverside interim head coach Dennis Cutts, a former assistant who stepped in for former coach Jim Wooldridge, now the school’s athletic director.

"We’ve had multiple guys be able to score the ball than in the past, where we’ve relied heavily on one guy," Cutts said. "I thought it was evident in the second half (at Davis); we were able to spread out a lot of our offense. We really had tried to preach that all year."

Observed Arnold: "They’re playing their best ball of the season right now."

Freshman guard Sam Finley has provided a boost, averaging 10.4 ppg. The last time Riverside had three players averaging double-figure scoring for a whole season was in 2006-07.

UH still leads the league in scoring at 80.7 points per game, but the ‘Bows haven’t topped 80 points since defeating Chaminade 94-84 on Kauai on Dec. 14 — eight games ago.

The ‘Bows are one of two teams in the Big West, along with Davis, searching for their first league win.

"That’s college basketball, and you have your ups and downs," said UH forward Christian Standhardinger, the Big West’s third-leading scorer at 17.6 ppg. "I think you want to stay together as a team, and I think we’re all ready to compete and accept the new challenge and win the next game."