Will Davis scored 17 points as UC Irvine held to beat host Hawaii 78-72 in a Big West basketball game Saturday.

The Anteaters improved to 11-8 and 4-1 in the conference. UH fell to 14-7 and 2-3.

A crowd of 7,465 saw it at the Stan Sheriff Center, largest for a home game for UH this season.

UH’s Aaron Valdes hit a 3-pointer to close the score to 71-70 with 1:39 left, but Alex Young (15 points) responded with a trey to put UC Irvine back in control with 1:21 left.

Hawaii’s Stefan Jankovic then made a pair of free throws, and Davis responded with a layup.

Jankovic missed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left and put Young on the line with his fifth foul. Young made both ends of a 1-and-1 situation for the final points with 25 seconds left.

Isaac Fleming lead the Rainbow Warriors with 14 points. Negus Webster-Chan and Jankovic added 11 each for UH. Roderick Bobbitt scored 10.

Jaron Martin came off the bench to score 11 of his 13 points as UC Irvine took a 42-34 halftime lead.

Eight of those points — including a 3-point bomb with two seconds left — came in the last 1:07 before the break.

Hawaii made just 25 percent of its first-half shots from the field. Isaac Fleming lead UH with nine.

The Anteaters played without 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndiaye. He was sidelined by an injury.