After precariously walking a tightrope the past six weeks, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team finally fell off it Saturday evening with a season-ending 82-73 loss at Cal State Northridge.
At the end of the rope — the destination — was the Big West Conference Championships in Henderson, Nev., set for Wednesday through Saturday at the Lee’s Family Forum. But the Warriors fell short — in the second half, the final score and the league standings — to finish at 15-16 overall and 7-13 in the Big West. Only the top eight teams will advance to the tournament, and UH finished ninth out of 11 teams by virtue of tiebreaker.
Despite teetering on the qualification fence by losing eight of 11 conference games after a 4-3 start, the Warriors still had multiple pathways to Henderson entering this final road trip. A win Thursday at Cal State Bakersfield — a team Hawai’i beat, 81-70, in Honolulu on Jan. 18 — would have punched a ticket with two days to spare.
But instead it was the Roadrunners who stayed alive with a 76-64 victory.
On Saturday the Warriors still had a “magic number” of 1, meaning either a Long Beach State home win over Cal Poly or a UH victory at CSUN would have done the trick. But Cal Poly prevailed, 83-69, meaning everything came down to Hawai’i vs. Northridge.
The Matadors had thrashed the Warriors, 83-60, in Honolulu on Jan. 16, UH’s worst home defeat of the season. But the Warriors led, 39-38, at halftime on Saturday.
in the second half, however, CSUN quickly grabbed the lead back with PJ Fuller’s 3-pointer just 18 seconds in, and did not allow Hawai’i to get it back.
Gytis Nmeiksa’s layup tied it at 41-41 with 19:17 remaining in the game, but Fuller responded with another 3-pointer to put the Matadors ahead for good. After Tom Beattie’s layup closed it to 51-50 with 15:18 left, Marcus Adams scored on a hook shot to ignite a 12-0 run capped by yet another 3-pointer by Fuller to give CSUN a commanding 63-50 lead eight minutes into the second half.
Nmeiksa sank a free throw to cut it to 75-66 with 3:45 still to go, but the Warriors could not get closer than that the rest of the way.
More details to come.
Big West Conference Standings
- UC San Diego 18-2
- UC Irvine 17-3
- UC Riverside 14-6
- Cal State Northridge 14-6
- UC Santa Barbara 11-9
- UC Davis 9-11
- Cal State Bakersfield 8-12
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 8-12
- HAWAI’I 7-13
- Long Beach State 3-17
- Cal State Fullerton 1-19
NOTE: Only the top eight teams at the end of the regular season qualified for the Big West Tournament set for Wednesday through Saturday in Henderson, Nev.