UH men, women earn wins over Long Beach
University of Hawaii Athletics
In a battle of two surging teams, the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team toppled Long Beach State, 73-65, Saturday night at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Rainbow Warriors improved to 16-12 overall and 8-8 in the Big West with their sixth win in their last eight contests. At the same time they ended a five-game winning streak by the Beach (18-10, 10-6) and moved within just a half game in the race for a top-four seed in next month’s Big West tournament.
Justin McKoy scored a career-high 26 points, shooting 10 of 14 from the floor and 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. Noel Coleman added 18 points, scoring 15 of those points after the break, including a pair of timely 3s to keep LBSU at bay.
AJ George led the Beach with 18 points, while Lassina Traore recorded 14 points and 14 rebounds.
UH took the lead for good less than three minutes into the game, held a seven-point lead at halftime and maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half. UH drained 10 of 28 3-point attempts while holding the Beach to 0 of 10 behind the arc.
LBSU made one last push and cut the deficit to six with less than 80 seconds left, but Coleman answered with a driving layup to put UH back up by eight and drained four free throws in the final 34 seconds to seal the win.
UH finished 15 of 19 from the line and out-rebounded the Beach 34-29.
Earlier Saturday in Long Beach, Calif., a career day for guard Daejah Phillips helped power the UH women’s basketball team to an 80-68 win over the Beach.
Phillips scored 22 of her career-high 29 points in the second half and shot 12 for 14 from the field overall to help the Rainbow Wahine (16-9, 13-3 Big West) claim sole possession of first place in the conference race.
UH forward Imani Perez finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists. MeiLani McBee had nine points with three 3-pointers and moved into third place in program history with 145 career 3-pointers. Guards Lily Wahinekapu and Kelsie Imai had six assists each in UH’s highest scoring game of the season.
All eight UH players who saw game action scored at least four points and had two rebounds and seven had at least one assist. The Rainbow Wahine shot a season-high 54.1 percent from the field and distributed 22 assists, also a season best, on 33 made field goals.
UH entered the day tied with UC Irvine for first place in the conference, but the Anteaters dropped a game back with a 69-65 loss to UC San Diego in overtime on Saturday.
UH led 35-28 at halftime and opened up a double-digit lead early in the third quarter before LBSU twice hit 3-pointers to close to within eight. Phillips scored on layups to push the lead back to 12 and Jacque David hit a 3-pointer to give UH a 4936 lead. The ‘Bows led by at least 12 the rest of the way.
Cheyenne Givens led five LBSU players in double figures with 14 points as the Beach (11-15, 6-10) saw a three-game winning streak end.
Hawaii next plays UC Davis on Thursday, the women at home and the men on the road.