72
The Hawaii basketball team dropped its regular-season finale with an 88-75 loss vs. Cal State Northridge today at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif.
The game was tied at 66 with eight minutes left but CSUN went on a 22-9 run to close it out. UH finished its first Big West season at 10-8 (17-13 overall). The Rainbow Warriors now wait for the rest of the league to finish up play on Saturday to determine their seed going into next week’s Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif.
UH will either be the fifth or sixth seed and will play Pacific, Cal Poly or UC Irvine in the first round.
UH finished 3-6 on the road in league play.
The Rainbow Warriors got 16 points and a career-high 19 rebounds by center Vander Joaquim and 26 points and seven boards by forward Christian Standhardinger. Swingman Hauns Brereton added 18 points. but their efforts were not enough as the rest of the team scored a combined 15.
Ninth-place CSUN (14-17, 5-13) overcame a 44-30 rebounding disadvantage by hitting 11 3-pointers on 27 attempts. Guard Josh Greene went off for 37 points on 9-for-18 shooting from the field and 12-for-14 from the free-throw line. Forward Stephen Maxwell added 24 points and 13 rebounds.
CSUN, playing its season finale, erased a four-point UH lead to open the second half. CSUN did not commit a turnover in the period.
The Matadors took their first lead of the period on a 3-pointer by Trevone Williams with 13:36 to play, but UH came right back with a jump shot by Hauns Brereton.
Brandon Jawato fouled out on a flagrant foul with 7:53 to play, which seemed to spark the Matadors. CSUN used that momentum to go up 71-67 on its ninth 3-pointer with 6:21 left.
The Matadors capitalized on UH turnovers down the stretch to extend their lead to double digits.
UH took a 43-39 halftime lead behind 17 first-half points by Standhardinger.
