The Hawaii basketball team conquered the boards, possession problems and Long Beach State for Thursday’s gritty 62-60 victory in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 2,607 saw Marcus Greene make a key recovery and then hit two decisive free throws in the final seconds to help the Rainbow Warriors improve to 14-11 and 6-8 in the Big West. The ’Bows remain in seventh place. Eight teams qualify for next month’s Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nev. The Beach, coached by former UH assistant Chris Acker, fell to 7-19 and 3-10.
After overcoming 12 first-half turnovers, the ’Bows built a 12-point lead after the intermission. But the Beach chipped away. It was 57-49 when Greene was assessed a foul on TJ Wainwright, who appeared to be falling before being touched. Wainwright swished all three free throws to cut the Beach’s deficit to 57-52.
Later, Wainwright hit a 3 to cut it to 58-55 with 1:25 to play.
Greene then missed a jumper for the right wing, and Tanner Christensen grabbed the offensive rebound. Greene got the ball again, and this time hit a pull-up jumper to extend the ’Bows’ lead to 60-55 with 33.4 seconds to play.
“Short-term memory,” Greene said. “You’ve just got to play your game, shoot your shot when you’re open and live with it.”
Two possessions later, LBSU’s Kam Martin drained a 3 from the top of the key to close the Beach to 60-58 with 10.4 seconds to play.
UH inbounded to Ryan Rapp, who was caught in a two-defender trap. The basketball broke free from Rapp’s grip, but Greene recovered with 5.9 seconds left.
“Just get the ball,” Greene said. “Need the ball, get the ball.”
Rapp said: “First of all, I thought I got fouled. I was expecting the ref to call a foul. When I realized he didn’t foul, I was like, ‘Please, somebody be there.’ Luckily Marcus got the ball.”
Greene was fouled, and his two free throws extended the lead to 62-58.
“Knock down the shots, end the game,” Greene said of his mindset at the line.
Devon Askew, who scored 29 points in the first meeting between the teams in December, misfired on a 3 with a two seconds left. Derrick Michael Xzavierro grabbed the offensive rebound and scored the inconsequential putback as time expired.
“For our team … I told our guys I’m a broken record,” Acker said. “We lost the rebounding battle by 14 (34-20). We had opportunity to come up with a couple rebounds down the stretch, which would have given us an opportunity on offense to take a lead, and we didn’t come up with the ball. That’s the story of our lives this season. Like I’ve always said, I’m very proud of the effort our team continues to put out there on the floor. Sometimes we’re physically out-matched in some of these games.”
Greene and Rapp led the ’Bows with 10 points apiece. Askew finished with 16 points but was held to 5-for-20 shooting.
Askew, a transfer from California, shot 2-for-10 in the first half. He was guarded by Aaron Hunkin-Claytor, Kody Williams and Tom Beattie. Williams exited with 8:58 left in the first half after landing awkwardly on a layup attempt. He did not play the rest of the game, although the ankle ailment is not considered serious.
In a symbolic moment in the first half, the arena lights dimmed and then went out for a few seconds. The brief power outage mirrored the offensive shortcomings of both teams in a first half that ended with Hawaii up 29-24.
Once again the ’Bows, who averaged 14.8 turnovers per Big West game, committed 12 in the first 20 minutes. At one point the ’Bows had twice as many turnovers (10) as baskets (five). Against a collapsing Beach defense and occasional press, the ’Bows shot 8-for-18 from the field in the first half. Their first three baskets were 3-point shots. They did not hit their first 2-point shot until Christiansen drove the lane from the right wing for a layup with 7:30 left ahead of the intermission.
