‘Bows knocked out

ANAHEIM, CALIF. » Christian Standhardinger had no more memorable quotes to give.

The Hawaii senior forward stared blankly out from the Big West postgame interview podium into a throng of media. Teammate Brandon Spearman offered up a comment on dramatic momentum swings. Red-eyed coach Gib Arnold painstakingly bled out a few succinct words.

When the loquacious Standhardinger was asked if he had anything to add, for the first time — and more than likely the last time — in his UH career, his response was, "No."

The Rainbow Warriors were rendered speechless by their 87-84 overtime defeat to Cal State Northridge in the Big West tournament quarterfinals at the Honda Center on Thursday.

What made this one different from other close losses, even in the postseason? It seemed won on several occasions, as UH led late in both regulation and in the extra period and seemed poised for its first Big West semifinal appearance.

UH (20-11) had seized control with a 40-11 scoring burst to bridge the halves, going from down 16 early to up 13 with 10:35 to play in the second half. It still led by 12 with 5:52 to play, then was outscored 18-6 to close the period.

Everything unraveled again in overtime. The fourth-seeded ‘Bows allowed No. 5 CSUN (16-17) to score the game’s final six points of the extra period after UH led 84-81. With UH down by three in the final moments, Spearman had one final 3-point look from the right wing to send it to another overtime — he’d hit three of five to that point. This one was on line but just a little too strong.

Thus, the Rainbow Warriors were drummed out in their opening game in Anaheim for the second straight season. And this time, a second straight appearance in the pay-to-play CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament seems unlikely.

"That was just a real tough one for us to swallow," Arnold said. "These guys didn’t deserve their season to end that way. Great kids and a great team. It’s a tough one. Thought we started out slow, made a great comeback and took charge of the game. Couldn’t finish it at the end. Thought we still battled. Extremely pleased with their effort. They left it all on the floor and normally that translates to a win, but tonight it didn’t. I feel sorry for them, but it’s been a hell of a year."

In the aftermath of the loss, UH athletic director Ben Jay said the CIT prospects were extremely unlikely.

"I owe it to (the team) to at least find out what the options are," Jay said. "The chances are slim. It has to be the right makeup of finances."

CSUN guard Josh Greene — dubbed "Big Shot Josh" by his first-year coach, Reggie Theus — knew with absolute certainty a loss meant the season for his team (16-17). And every time the Matadors were on life support, Greene resurrected his team with a huge shot. He finished with 27 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 4-for-8 on 3s and 9-for-9 at the foul line, helping Northridge earn a date with No. 3 Long Beach State in Friday’s semifinals.

"I just didn’t want to lose," Greene said. "We were down and I knew this could be my last five minutes left of my college career. So I kept grinding and working hard."

The stocky 6-foot guard hit a tying 3 with 16 seconds left in regulation and UH was unable to win it there as point guard Keith Shamburger had his shot blocked on a spinning drive to the hoop.

Greene hit another bomb to tie it at 81 in the extra period. Shamburger, going heads-up with Greene at that point, scored eight of UH’s 10 points in overtime, including a free throw and a pull-up jumper for a three-point lead, UH’s last points.

Then came a move that’s bound to be second, third and fourth-guessed. With 18.7 seconds left, UH elected to take a foul to deny a 3-point attempt to tie. Greene, one of the best foul shooters in the country at better than 90 percent, made both to cut it to a one-point game.

Arnold said the foul was given earlier than planned by Quincy Smith — 10 seconds or less was the idea, he said.

"That wasn’t the game," he added. "We had plenty of chances to win it before and even after that."

Coming out of a timeout, Shamburger was called for a turnover for stepping out of bounds. The guard pleaded with referees for a foul, claiming he’d been pushed out, to no avail. CSUN called time out again and Big West first-teamer Stephen Maxwell made a baseline jumper for the go-ahead points with 12 seconds left.

UH, out of timeouts at that point, got the ball to Smith and the backup point guard dribbled upcourt quickly. But before he could shoot, forward Isaac Fotu was called for an illegal screen for sticking out his elbow. UH was forced to take a foul with 7.2 seconds left and Matadors center Tre Hale-Edmerson made two to extend the lead to three.

Spearman couldn’t bail out his team one last time with a 3.

"It’s the game of basketball," Spearman said after a deep breath. "They’re going to make runs. Of course, we’re going to make our runs. They end up fighting back and we just couldn’t answer, I guess. We played with our heart, and that’s all we can ask for."

Standhardinger led Hawaii with 28 points and nine rebounds. Shamburger added a career-high 20, while Spearman tied his season-high of 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting.

UH had just five turnovers until late in the second half but finished with 11 against intensified ball pressure in the backcourt.

Forward Stephan Hicks added 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting. It was the Matadors’ first conference tournament appearance in three seasons.

CSUN was level-headed in the extra period, its sixth overtime game in its past 12 contests. The best free-throw shooting team in the country finished 23-for-27 (85.2 percent) at the line.

"Coming into the situation, I look at where we have come from and where we are today, this is a huge win for our program in general," Theus said. "We have the tools to do it, but we have to do it collectively. We are on track to build this program the way it should be built, and that is through hard work and effort."

Theus said his team prepared for the past four days for Fotu, the newly minted Big West first-team forward. The double teams came mercilessly and Fotu was held to six points on 3-for-10 shooting.

Compounding that, shooting guard Garrett Nevels fouled out with six points in 21 minutes.

CSUN shot 60 percent in the first half and 53.6 percent for the game, and outrebounded UH 35-29.

Standhardinger went 14-for-16 at the line to establish the UH single-season record for free-throws made with 195, surpassing Chris Gaines’ 184.

CS NORTHRIDGE 87, HAWAII 84 OT
MATADORS (16-17)

RAINBOW WARRIORS (20-11)