Slices of adversity, at least of the on-court variety, have been few and far between for the Hawaii basketball team this season.
The 2015-16 Rainbow Warriors were handed their first real helping of it on Saturday night.
“We talk amongst ourselves, go watch film, and forget it happened. Go beat Santa Barbara, go beat Cal Poly, come back, go beat (UC) Irvine.”
Mike Thomas
UH forward commenting on the loss to Long Beach State
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In front of the program’s first sellout crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center since 2004, UH (16-3, 5-1 Big West) came out sluggish and tight against Long Beach State. The Rainbows tried to rally all game but received a knockout blow in the form of a closing 12-0 Beach run, snapping UH’s eight-game winning streak, 78-64.
Now UH looks to regroup on the road, where it is 2-1 this season — including 2-0 in league play. The Rainbows will head up the Central California coast, to UC Santa Barbara on Thursday and Cal Poly on Saturday.
“We talk amongst ourselves, go watch film, and forget it happened,” forward Mike Thomas said in a morose postgame press conference. “Go beat Santa Barbara, go beat Cal Poly, come back, go beat (UC) Irvine.”
UH had a chance to move into first place in the Big West with Irvine’s 16-point home loss to UCSB on Saturday, but could not capitalize on the golden opportunity, and also missed a chance to match the program’s best start to conference play (6-0 in 2001-02). The Anteaters remain the league leader at 6-1.
“In the end we lost a composure battle,” UH coach Eran Ganot said.
LBSU guard Nick Faust reveled in the hostile crowd (turnstile count 9,078) and swaggered his way to 28 points and a career-best 14 rebounds. He was one of a few 49ers who punished UH with second-chance baskets.
Faust capped off the game by hitting two 3-pointers and lobbing the ball to himself for a fast-break dunk.
“He’s just like everybody else, he’s just aggressive, that’s it,” UH guard Quincy Smith said. “He’s nothing special. He just played really hard. He seen the ball come off the glass and went to go get it. He hit open shots and played hard.”
UH’s lack of effort on the glass was startling; they were outrebounded by 19. The Rainbows had been outdone on the glass just four times going into Saturday, and never by more than a margin of two (Nevada, plus-one; Texas Tech, plus-one; Oklahoma, plus-one; UC Santa Barbara, plus-two).
“Play more physical, from the beginning,” Thomas said of what needed to happen. “And we didn’t.”
The 49ers’ second-chance points advantage was 22-13, but it felt like more. The Beach put up several crowd-quieting putback layups and dunks.
“That’s been a real weakness for us,” 49ers coach Dan Monson said. “Rebounding is something we knew, especially losing our center (Temidayo Yusuf) for the year, was going to be difficult for us this year. Last two or three games we’ve been outrebounded in league and to be able to win on the boards I think was a huge key for us.”
UH was hampered by quiet performances from Aaron Valdes (three points) in his return from a toe injury; Isaac Fleming (scoreless), who tweaked an ankle and never got going; and Stefan Jankovic, who got in foul trouble and seemed out of sorts.
After Thomas (career-high 20 points) scored inside to make it a three-point game with 3:37 left, point guard Roderick Bobbitt missed a tying 3-point attempt and the Beach buckled down in a zone. The 49ers did not allow another UH point besides Sai Tummala’s moot free throw in the final seconds.
UH was held to a season-low scoring output and lost by double figures for the first time all season.
