UH outlasts Long Beach State for Big West title

ANAHEIM, CALIF. >> Hawaii’s dance with destiny is deferred no longer.

The Rainbow Warriors got contributions from up and down their roster — just about all of them necessary — as they punched their first ticket to the NCAA Tournament since 2002 with a hard-fought 64-60 win over Long Beach State in the Big West tournament championship game on Saturday night.

Delirious UH fans stormed the Honda Center court, leaping euphorically in the air with many of the same players that dejectedly walked off the hardwood this time a year ago with a loss to UC Irvine for the title.

It capped a storybook few hours for UH; the UH women’s team beat UC Davis for that title earlier in the afternoon. It was only the fourth time in Big West history a school won both the men’s and the women’s championships in the same year, the most recent happening in 2002.

There are only a few single-season milestones established in program history left for first-year coach Eran Ganot to surpass. UH (27-5) tied its single-season wins record with the 2001-02 team that last represented UH in the NCAAs.

“Special moment,” Ganot said. “Just very happy for our guys, our program, university, athletic department. What a special day for UH, with the women’s achievement earlier in the day, following their lead.

“What a turnout,” he added, alluding to the couple of thousand UH fans who rocked the building with chants of “Let’s go, ’Bows!”

The Rainbow Warriors have never won an NCAA Tournament game. They will watch the NCAA selection show today to learn their region, seeding and first-round matchup.

Wing Aaron Valdes scored 14 points on 4-for-7 shooting and was named tournament MVP. Forward Stefan Jankovic scored all of his 10 points in the second half and joined Valdes on the all-tournament team.

It was all the sweeter for a battle-tested group that’s weathered an NCAA investigation; a postseason ban in place for next season; and, for some, two coaching changes in three years.

“How we’ve been tested, the main group of guys, we earned this,” said Jankovic, who put his team ahead for good with a 3-pointer with 2:45 left. “We deserved this. We’ve been working tirelessly.”

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt’s free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining clinched the victory for UH, which saw a six-point halftime lead evaporate late.

Long Beach State (20-14) had the ball down two coming out of a timeout with 18.2 seconds left, its top two scorers — Nick Faust and Travis Hammonds — already fouled out. But Beach point guard Justin Bibbins was off on a 3-point attempt and the ball carried out of bounds with 1.3 seconds left.

After officials reviewed the play, the ball was awarded to UH and more time went back on the clock. The ball was knocked back out on Valdes’ inbounds pass with 1.7 seconds left and LBSU fouled Bobbitt before UH could inbound it again. He calmly drained both as UH fans erupted.

“It means a lot,” Bobbitt said. “We got to this point last year and it didn’t end up the way we wanted it to. We didn’t forget about that. That fueled the fire until this year and we got back, we listened and did everything we had to do.”

UH held LBSU to 37.3 percent shooting and avenged a home-and-home sweep during the regular season.

This time UH outrebounded The Beach 35-30, a critical swing after getting outdone on the boards in both earlier losses to the 49ers.

LBSU fans stormed the Walter Pyramid court after a 74-72 win over UH to cap the regular season, just before the tournament.

“It was a lot of motivation,” Valdes said. “It kind of made us angry and we wanted this game coming out.”

“He said it all right there,” Bobbitt said.

A day after its all-conference players carried almost the entire workload in a semifinal win over UC Santa Barbara, UH had to turn to its reserves because of foul trouble for Bobbitt and Jankovic, their BWC first-team players. They each played only seven first-half minutes.

UH fell behind by four. But boosted by its reserves, UH actually rallied to take the lead — then maintained it through the end of the first half. Seldom-used guard Niko Filipovich beat Bibbins off the dribble for a layup to beat the buzzer for a 31-25 lead at the break.

“I think it was the biggest part of the game,” Ganot said.

Backup center Stefan Jovanovic had nine points and six rebounds and freshman guard Sheriff Drammeh hit two big 3-pointers.

“I don’t know what to say,” Jovanovic said. “It was us just getting in there and doing the right thing. Starting five kind of was not working the best. We came in and were having great energy and just performing our best. … We pressured them a lot and made them change their offense, change their defense.”

Drammeh got so excited after the win he climbed up on the rim over the sea of bodies on the court and started to cut the net down himself before protocol demanded he wait for teammates.

“I didn’t really know that out here in America, one player cuts off one piece,” said Drammeh, who is from Sweden. “Back home, you just run to the net, first to the net and cut it off. So that’s what I was doing. But I hope I at least got a cool picture while I was sitting up on the rim.”

Hawaii 64, Long Beach State 60

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 — Hawaii 31, Long Beach State 25

3-point goals — Long Beach State 5-22 (Bibbins 2-4, Faust 2-6, Hammonds 1-4, Levin 0-1, Jones 0-1, Spencer 0-2, Blackwell 0-4). Hawaii 5-17 (Drammeh 2-2, Smith 1-1, Valdes 1-2, Jankovic 1-3, Thomas 0-1, Tummala 0-1, Filipovich 0-3, Bobbitt 0-4). Steals — Long Beach State 3 (Faust 2, Riggins). Hawaii 5 (Valdes 2, Bobbitt, Filipovich, Smith). Blocked shots — Long Beach State 2 (Faust, Hammonds). Hawaii 2 (Jovanovic 2). Turnovers — Long Beach State 13 (Hammonds 3, Bibbins 2, Faust 2, Levin 2, Blackwell, Prince, Riggins, Spencer). Hawaii 16 (Jankovic 3, Thomas 3, Bobbitt 2, Filipovich 2, Smith 2, Tummala 2, Drammeh, Valdes). Technical fouls — none. Officials — Tony Padilla, Mike Scyphers, Daryl Gelinas. A — 5,610.