LONG BEACH, Calif. » A late collapse sabotaged early dominance in Hawaii’s latest attempt to surpass the break-even point in Big West Conference play.

After building a 12-point lead in the first four minutes, the Rainbow Warriors watched Long Beach State rally for a 65-50 win Saturday in front of 3,351 at the Walter Pyramid.

UH’s latest loss comes as the NCAA cited the basketball program for seven violations, the Star-Advertiser reported Saturday. Three reached Level I status, the NCAA’s most severe category. The NCAA classified the other four as Level II or "significant breach(es) of conduct" in the association’s terminology.

"I have no comment about the NCAA thing, but it’s been hard to have them focused all year," UH coach Benjy Taylor said in reference to his players. "We have 15 wins and nobody’s been through what we’ve been through."

The Warriors received information Friday that the NCAA issued a Notice of Allegations specifying the alleged misconduct.

"We didn’t really react to it," guard Aaron Valdes said. "That stuff doesn’t really matter to us until after the season. Then we’ll worry about it. But right now, we’ve just got to focus on the season.

"Coach Benjy does a good job of keeping us on track, on course and settling down. He’s kept us away from it, so it’s good for us."

UH (15-8, 3-4) took a 12-0 lead 3 minutes, 49 seconds into the game. Stefan Jankovic scored five of his team-high 13 points and grabbed two of his four rebounds during the spree. Roderick Bobbitt contributed two steals that he used to score driving lay-ins.

Meanwhile, Long Beach (12-11, 6-1) missed its first seven shots and 10 of its first 11. When Long Beach coach Dan Monson called a timeout with 16:31 left in the first half, one second after Jankovic made a 3-point shot that gave UH a 10-0 advantage, he pulled all five starters — including point guard Mike Caffey, who scored a career-high 34 points Thursday night in the 49ers’ 91-85 overtime victory at Cal State Fullerton.

Caffey would finish Saturday’s game with a season-low five points against Bobbitt’s defense. Yet the Warriors’ immediate dominance would prove deceptive.

"We got a little spoiled with the early success," Taylor said, "and we started taking bad shots."

After converting six of its first nine field-goal attempts, UH would end the first half making five of its next 20. The 49ers responded by hitting six of their final 12 shots in that half and converting 10 of 13 free throws to move ahead, 26-25, with 1:44 before halftime.

Jankovic’s hook shot with 1:01 remaining gave the Warriors a 27-26 halftime lead. But UH scored only three points on free throws in the first 4:17 of the second half, as Long Beach took a 36-29 lead with 15:52 to play.

"We got a little selfish out there," Valdes said. "We weren’t really together out there. I think we were just settling too much for jump shots. We’ve got to find each other more and be more unselfish."

Jankovic made a one-handed jumper from the left baseline to narrow the deficit to 42-39 with 12:58 to play. But the Warriors scored only two points during the next 9:25, and Long Beach forged a 58-41 advantage with 3:43 left.

"They’re a good driving team," Valdes said. "They attacked the basket and they got the foul calls."

As a result, the 49ers made 13 of 17 free throws in the second half while getting Jankovic, Stefan Jovanovic and Mike Thomas into foul trouble.

With Caffey stifled, Long Beach found other sources of offense. Travis Hammonds came off the bench to lead the 49ers with 12 points. David Samuels added 11 points and nine rebounds, while Tyler Lamb and Deonte North scored 10 points apiece to give the 49ers their fifth consecutive win and seventh in eight games.

Caffey "kept his composure, even though he didn’t shoot it well in the first half," Taylor said. "He kept his composure and he ran his team. That’s what he’s supposed to do."

Thomas tied his career best with 10 rebounds before fouling out. Bobbitt made eight steals and passed for five assists but committed seven of UH’s 20 turnovers.

"Our problem was turnovers and not finishing," Taylor said. "We took ourselves out of it, and that’s the disappointing part."

Saturday

Long Beach State 65, Hawaii 50

UC Riverside 66, CSUN 62

UC Irvine 77, UCSB 55

UC Davis 81, Cal Poly 78, OT

Thursday, Feb. 5

Hawaii at Cal Poly, 5 p.m. (HST)

CSUN at CS Fullerton

UC Riverside at Long Beach State

UC Davis at UC Irvine

Key — min: minutes played; fg-a: field goals made-attempted; ft-a: free throws made-attempted; rb: rebounds; pf: personal fouls; pts: total points.

Halftime — Hawaii 27, Long Beach State 34

3-point goals — Hawaii 5-22 (Jankovic 2-2, Smith 1-2, Websert-Chan 1-4, Valdes 1-5, Filipvich 0-1, Bobbitt 0-2, Nevels 0-3, Fleming 0-3). Long Beach State 6-18 (LaSalle 2-3, Hammonds 2-3, Samuels 1-2, Lamb 1-2, North 1-2, Bibbins 0-1, Jones 0-2, Caffey 0-4).  Steals — Hawaii 15 (Bobbitt 8, Valdes 3, Thomas 2, Smith, Websert-Chan). Long Beach State 7 (Jones 4, Caffey, LaSalle, North). Turnovers — Hawaii 20 (Bobbitt 7, Jankovic 3, Fleming 3, Nevels 2, Valdes 2, Smith, Webster-Chan, Thomas). Long Beach State 20 (Caffey 4, Jones 4, North 3, Samuels 2, Lamb 2, Hammonds 2, LaSalle, Yussuf, Bibbins). Assists — Hawaii 7 (Bobbitt 5, Fleming, Smith). Long Beach State 11 (Caffey 4, Jones 2, Samuels, Lamb, North, Bibbins, Hammonds). Blocked shots — Hawaii 1 (Bobbitt). Long Beach State 3 (Hammonds 2, McKnight). Technical fouls — Hawaii none. Long Beach State none. Officials — Michael Eggers, Phil White, Don Berdahl. A — NA.