LONG BEACH, Calif. » For the third time in five Big West Conference games, Hawaii put itself in a position to win by nullifying a double-digit deficit Saturday night.
But a pivotal turnover enabled Long Beach State to score the winning basket in a 76-72 victory in front of 2,749 at the Walter Pyramid.
Nevertheless, UH coach Gib Arnold saw improvement from the Rainbow Warriors’ 68-64 defeat at UC Irvine on Wednesday night.
"I think we played better," Arnold said. "I think we were much more physical. After the Irvine game, I thought we had a little bit left in the tank. But tonight, I thought we gave it everything. The guys played their hearts out.
"I told the guys afterward in the locker room that I’m proud to go to battle with them."
Wednesday night’s defeat provided motivation.
"We were fired up from that loss," UH guard Jace Tavita said. "We wanted to come out and play solid."
Yet untimely mistakes — including missed free throws and three technical fouls, two of them on Arnold — sabotaged the Rainbows (9-7, 3-2).
After falling behind 6-0, Hawaii embarked on a 14-1 blitz to move ahead 14-7. The 49ers (8-8, 4-1) responded with a 16-4 surge to regain a 23-18 lead.
Part of that recovery involved an unusual sequence of free throws with the score tied at 16. Long Beach’s James Ennis made the first of two foul shots to put the hosts ahead by one point when Arnold got a technical foul for arguing.
Ennis gave way to Peter Pappageorge, who made both technical free throws to expand the lead to three points. Ennis then returned to the foul line and converted his remaining free throw to give the 49ers a 20-16 lead.
But with 7:01 left in the first half, Garrett Jefferson made a 3-pointer to put UH ahead 27-26. However, Jefferson endangered that lead by committing a technical foul immediately after the play.
Pappageorge made two more technical free throws to begin a spurt that would give Long Beach a 38-28 advantage with 4:33 left before halftime. The 49ers took a 43-36 advantage into the break.
Long Beach pushed its lead to 10 at 61-51 with 8:52 to play in the game before Brandon Jawato took offensive control for the Rainbows.
Jawato scored 10 of his team-leading 16 points in the final 5:21 and used a pair of 3-pointers to tie the score twice — once at 67 with 3:19 to play, again at 72 with 1:08 left.
Then, the Warriors received an unbelievable break.
Long Beach’s Dan Jennings went to the foul line with a chance to put the 49ers ahead with 47 seconds remaining. But both of Jennings’ free throws failed to hit the rim.
Yet Long Beach’s defense kept the Warriors from exploiting the opportunity.
On the ensuing possession, Ennis pressured Tavita, who tried to give the ball to Jawato. But Ennis deflected the ball off Jawato and it bounced out of bounds with 13.8 seconds left, ensuring that Long Beach would have a final chance.
"It was supposed to be a high ball screen," Tavita said about the play. "I came off it and Jawato was coming. I was going to dribble and hand off to him."
Mike Caffey got the inbounds pass, dribbled to run time off the clock and then hit a running 14-footer with 1.7 seconds left to give the 49ers a 74-72 lead.
Arnold got a second technical foul for arguing and was ejected. Pappageorge’s two technical free throws with nine-tenths of a second remaining made the result academic.
Vander Joachim scored 13 points and needs only nine more to reach 1,000 career points. But Hawaii missed eight of 15 free throws — including six of seven in the final 6:21 of the first half — and committed 16 turnovers.
