Long Beach State raced to a 20-point lead and then coasted to today’s 79-71 basketball victory over Hawaii in Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.

The Beach seized control early, hitting 75% of their first-half shots en route to ending a two-game losing streak and improving to 12-7 overall and 4-3 in the Big West.

Marcus Tsohonis, who did not play in Saturday’s loss to UC Santa Barbara, returned to the Beach lineup and produced 20 points. Jadon Jones was perfect — 9-for-9 shooting, 3-for-3 on 3s — in contributing 19 points.

The Rainbow Warriors held the Beach without a field goal in the final 3 minutes, 40 seconds to cut the deficit to single digits. But the ’Bows did not make enough of their season-tying 38 3-point attempts. Justin McKoy hit six of the ’Bows’ made 12 3-pointers and finished with 22 points. McKoy took only one shot in 14 minutes in the second half.

UH point guard JoVon McClanahan was assessed his third foul with 16:23 to play. McClanahan did not play the rest of the game as Juan Munoz gave the ’Bows a push with his passing, drives and outside shooting.

The ’Bows play UC San Diego on Saturday in La Jolla, Calif.