Hawaii let down. Nick Faust and Long Beach State wouldn’t let up.

The first home sellout crowd for a UH basketball game in more than a decade filed out of the Stan Sheriff Center disappointed, as the 49ers threw a putback party and snapped UH’s eight-game winning streak with a 78-64 decision on Saturday night.

“We just didn’t come ready to play,” co-captain Quincy Smith said. “We let ourselves down, the coaches down, the fans down.”

The Rainbow Warriors (16-3, 5-1 Big West) had an opportunity to seize sole possession of first in the Big West if they could score another home win, coupled with UC Irvine’s 16-point home loss to UC Santa Barbara before UH tipped off.

Instead, third-place Long Beach (11-12, 5-3) and UCSB tag-teamed to narrow the chasm between UH, UCI and the rest of the conference.

“You gotta go hard or you’re going to get beat,” said forward Mike Thomas, who scored a career-high 20 points. “It was a testament tonight in two places.”

UH’s game-long comeback bid was stymied time and again by second chances by the Beach. But the turnstile audience of 9,078 created deafening sound in the final minutes when UH clawed within three.

Then the Beach, keyed by the Maryland transfer Faust, went on a decisive 12-0 run to take the game.

Faust, coming off a career-high 34 points in an overtime home win over UCSB on Thursday, scored 28 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

LBSU, not known as a great rebounding team, snagged 14 offensive boards and beat up the league’s top team on the glass to the tune of 47-28. Many were for easy putback layups and dunks.

“We weren’t even average today. We got beat by 20,” UH coach Eran Ganot said.

“I think we got outplayed in every area, including our approach, the most important one which we’ve been pretty good at,” the coach said. “It starts with me. You gotta take the heat. … I want to say this too, you’ve gotta give credit to Long Beach for coming in ready to play and wanting it more. … You see that on the boards.”

A 20-for-34 effort at the line (58.8 percent) hamstrung UH’s chances and mitigated foul trouble for several LBSU players.

Smith scored 13 points and point guard Roderick Bobbitt 12. Smith and Bobbitt combined for seven steals.

Wing Aaron Valdes was largely ineffective in his return from a turf-toe injury that cost him three games. He scored three points in 19 minutes off the bench. Meanwhile, the starter in Valdes’ stead, Isaac Fleming, was bothered by a tweaked ankle and went scoreless in 17 minutes. Big man Stefan Jankovic was thrown off by early foul trouble in both halves and scored just six on 2-for-9 shooting.

The Rainbows hit the first basket of the game, a 3-pointer by Bobbitt, but were largely out of sorts from there, being outscored 16-0 over the next 7:22.

LBSU, the top 3-point-shooting team in the league, led by double figures in all three previous Big West losses but protected their advantage this time.

LBSU coach Dan Monson gave UH’s game environment high marks.

“I don’t think you ever get totally prepared for an environment like today. It was a great atmosphere,” Monson said. “The one I compare it to was Duke when we were in Cameron Indoor, and it doesn’t prepare you for it, but hopefully we learned a little bit. We had way too many turnovers (15) and they rattled us, but at Duke we tried to go too fast and today that wasn’t the problem. We didn’t have the travels and the crazy shots.”

With UH trailing 21-7, Ganot rolled the dice and reinserted Jankovic, who had two fouls. He scored immediately out of the timeout and Bobbitt followed with a 3 to get the crowd back in it.

LBSU point guard Justin Bibbins was carried off to the locker room late in the half with an apparent leg injury. After that, UH’s guards, particularly Smith, opportunistically went after the Beach’s less-experienced ball handlers to come up with some steals and points late in the period.

Jankovic had a look at a 3 to tie it up at the halftime buzzer, but he was off the mark and LBSU led 34-31 at the break.

UH could not keep it going on the other side. Jankovic missed a layup, then committed his fourth foul going for the rebound with 16 minutes to play.

Noah Blackwell crossed up Smith and hit a step-back 3 for a 53-42 lead with 12:34 to play.

The ‘Bows swung it around the arc to Sai Tummala in the corner for a 3, which drew UH within 54-47.

After grabbing an offensive board, Faust stuck a turnaround jumper to extend it back to double digits with seven minutes to go.

Bobbitt hit a top-arc 3 to get UH within 65-58 with 5:22 to play.

Smith and Bobbitt teamed up to steal the ball from Faust in the open court, and Smith exploded for a two-hand jam, and-1, fouling out Blackwell in the process with 4:22 to play, making it a five-point game.

Thomas scored inside on UH’s next trip down, giving him a new career-high 20 and cutting the LBSU lead to 66-63.

That would be as close as it got. Sheriff Drammeh tried to take a charge on Gabe Levin and appeared to be in position, but the whistle went in favor of LBSU and it kicked off the game-breaking run.

“Just focus, we didn’t focus,” Smith said. “We didn’t stick to what we were supposed to do.”

UH now prepares to head out to the road for games at UCSB and Cal Poly this week.

BIG WEST MEN

Saturday

Long Beach State 78, Hawaii 64

UC Davis 66, Cal Poly 52

UC Santa Barbara 76, UC Irvine 60

UC Riverside 81, Cal State Fullerton 71

Wednesday

UC Irvine at Cal Poly

CSUN at UC Riverside

Thursday

Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m. HST UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton

LONG BEACH ST. 78, HAWAII 64

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

Halftime — Long Beach State 34, Hawaii 31

3-points goals — Long Beach State 8-20 (Faust 5-8, Blackwell 2-4, Hammonds 1-3,

Bibbins 0-1, Spencer 0-1, Jones 0-3). Hawaii 6-25 (Bobbitt 3-8, Thomas 1-1, Smith 1-2, Tummala 1-4, Jankovic 0-2, Valdes 0-2, Drammeh 0-3, Fleming 0-3). Steals — Long Beach State 5 (Faust 3, Hammonds, Prince). Hawaii 10 (Smith 4, Bobbitt 3, Thomas, Tummala , Valdes). Blocked shots — Long Beach State 2 (Hammonds, Levin). Hawaii 4 (Jovanovic 2, Jankovic, Tummala). Turnovers — Long Beach State 15 (Faust 4, Hammonds 3, Jones 3, Prince 2, Blackwell, Levin, Riggins).

Hawaii 13 (Bobbitt 3, Fleming 2, Jankovic 2, Tummala 2, Jovanovic, Smith, Thomas, TEAM). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Ian Caldwell, Tim Marion, John Butler. A— 9,078.