Hawaii’s comeback falls short in men’s basketball loss at Long Beach State

LONG BEACH, Calif. >> When Long Beach State held a 14-point lead in the second half against Hawaii on Saturday, Drew Buggs expressed his feelings during a timeout.

“We’ve got to man up,” Buggs implored his teammates, repeating the command several times while making other comments.

When the hosts expanded their advantage to a game-high 16 points 2 1/2 minutes later, Justin Hemsley reinforced the message during another timeout.

“If we want this (expletive) win,” Hemsley yelled, “we don’t take this (expletive).”

The determined rally that followed in the next 9 1/2 minutes took the Rainbow Warriors within five points of victory in the final 18.8 seconds.

Yet despite that fury and Eddie Stansberry’s 19 points, UH suffered its fifth loss in six games: a 64-60 defeat to the Beach in front of a listed crowd of 2,100 at the Walter Pyramid.

That loss dropped the ’Bows (15-11, 6-6) into a tie with Cal State Northridge for fourth place in the Big West Conference. Both teams are one game behind second-place UC Santa Barbara — and one game in front of Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach (10-18, 5-7).

Stansberry, who led all scorers, converted five shots from 3-point range to move into sixth place on the program’s single-season list with 78. Zane Johnson holds fifth place with the 82 he made in 2011-12. Justin Webster added 15 points less than 48 hours after scoring a career-best 18 in a 56-55 win at UC Riverside.

Though Webster virtually duplicated his performance from his previous game, the ’Bows accomplished the opposite after nearly squandering a 17-point lead Thursday night.

“It’s disappointing that we can’t find the consistency we need,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We’ve got to stop putting ourselves in those positions. I’m glad we gave ourselves a chance, but if we’re going to make a move, we’ve got to be more consistent.”

The ’Bows survived a stretch of 5 minutes, 44 seconds early in the first half when they scored just three points on free throws, and held an 18-12 lead with 9:08 before halftime. The hosts responded with a 13-2 blitz that put them ahead 25-20. UH narrowed the deficit to 27-24 with 2:10 left in the half, but the Beach finished with a 7-0 spurt to gain a 34-24 halftime advantage.

“They out-scrapped us early,” Ganot said. “That led to paint domination on their end with their ability to finish around the rim and their getting to the free-throw line, and they beat us on the boards. We’re a pretty good rebounding team, but we weren’t tonight.”

However, the tide turned with 9:29 to play, during the timeout when Hemsley exhorted his teammates.

“If we want this win, we’re going to have to turn it up and make a change,” the junior explained afterward. “If we don’t make the change, we’re not going to get the ‘dub.’ ”

That change meant using what Ganot called his “compete group” during that timeout: Buggs, Stansberry and Webster as guards, Hemsley as a power forward and 6-foot-6 Zigmars Raimo as the center. Those five played the rest of the game, with Samuta Avea as the lone substitute.

“We played five guys who compete their tails off,” Ganot said. “We felt it would start there. They have a lot of pride. They’ve a lot of grit. We have a history of coming back, and they felt like we could come back again.”

Those five provided more than energy.

“That kind of lineup gives us a little more versatility, more of a sense of urgency” Hemsley said. “It’s kind of like small ball, but Zigmars is a real presence in the post. He can handle a lot of big guys.

“We were able to move the ball around a little quicker. We were able to pressure more on defense. That lineup was good for us, in terms our pace and our push.”

Long Beach’s Michael Carter III led the hosts with 15 points. Freshman Joshua Morgan added 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks. But the Beach committed 18 turnovers. Chance Hunter, Long Beach’s leading scorer, failed to start for the first time this season after being “banged up,” a spokesman said, in Wednesday night’s game against UC Irvine. Hunter played 19 minutes and finished with nine points.