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NORTHRIDGE, Calif. >> Despite career offensive performances from Eddie Stansberry and Samuta Avea, Hawaii fell victim to another untimely offensive drought Saturday night.
That late collapse allowed Cal State Northridge to rally for an 86-82 victory in front of 1,624 at Northridge’s Matadome, as the Big West Conference men’s basketball regular season ended.
The Rainbow Warriors (17-13, 8-8) enter the Big West tournament with seven losses in their past 10 games. UH finished tied for fourth with UC Davis but will play as the fourth seed because the ’Bows swept the two-game season series against the Aggies.
Stansberry scored a career-high 31 points and made seven shots from 3-point range, tying another personal best. In the process, the senior moved into fourth place on the program’s all-time list for 3-point field goals with 167.
“They’re kind of all over the place defensively,” Stansberry said. “We saw earlier they were going under ball screens and were late on switches. So we were getting great looks, not just myself but my teammates, as well. When you get a little bit of space with the team we have, it’s great looks for us to shoot the ball.”
Avea added 20 points, surpassing his previous career best of 18 points he amassed Thursday night at UC Davis, and tied another career high with nine rebounds. After missing five games because of a back injury, the junior from Hau’ula is averaging 14.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in his past four games.
“Definitely, the confidence is up,” Avea said. “It’s all thanks to my teammates and coaches for always lifting me up and keeping me confident. I can’t get that time back, but being able to watch while I was injured helped me read things and see things that I might not have seen before.”
Avea and Stansberry helped the ’Bows shoot 62.1% in the first half, which ended with both teams tied at 47. UH built a 73-68 lead with 8:50 to play but scored only three points on free throws in the ensuing 6:35, enabling the Matadors (15-17, 10-6) to move ahead 80-76 with 3:57 left.
Stansberry’s final 3-point shot narrowed the deficit to 80-79, and Justin Hemsley’s rebound with 1:48 remaining gave the ’Bows an opportunity to regain the lead.
But three seconds later, Northridge’s Terrell Gomez stole the ball at midcourt. Gomez passed to Brendan Harrick, who passed to Lamine Diane, who powered a dunk that extended the lead to 82-79 with 1:42 to play. Diane then added a lay-in with 57.2 seconds left to give the Matadors an 84-79 lead.
“He’s unorthodox,” UH coach Eran Ganot. “He makes shots you normally want (an opponent) to take. More than anything, he gets going when he gets loose in transition.”
“He gets offensive rebounds and quick drop-offs. What’s really tough is that he’s got a guy like Gomez with him. Teams are struggling to figure out where to provide support when you have that kind of shooting in support.”
Diane finished with 34 points, 15 rebounds and a career-best six blocks, all game highs. Gomez made seven of 10 shots, including five of eight from 3-point range, in scoring 24 points.
Hemsley contributed 13 points and seven rebounds for UH.
“It’s disappointing,” Ganot said. “It’s good to see the flow come back offensively. But when things got a little helter-skelter, we got a little helter-skelter. We had three or four possessions of poor execution, guys being in the wrong spots.
“They kicked our tail in transition. They kicked our tail on the glass. They kicked our tail on the 50-50 balls. In a lot of other areas, we played well. We were in control for most of the game. But in critical times, we’ve got to be really even more focused. It played into their hands, for sure.”
With the tournament beginning Thursday, UH’s task is straightforward.
“For us, the next move is being more consistent and having our guys click at the same time,” Ganot said.” When we’re clicking on offense, can we continue to click on defense? Our offense was better; our defense was not. It’s hard for us to separate because of that.”
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