{"id":2833,"date":"2025-03-09T09:10:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T19:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2025-03-15T07:57:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T17:57:51","slug":"csun-ends-warriors-season-with-82-73-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/09\/csun-ends-warriors-season-with-82-73-win\/","title":{"rendered":"CSUN ends Warriors’ season with 82-73 win"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hawai’i head coach Eran Ganot, shown studying the action at last year’s Big West Championships in Henderson, Nev., won’t get that same opportunity after a Saturday loss at Cal State Northridge knocked the Warriors into ninth place and out of contention for a tournament berth. (Brandon Flores Photography file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead it was the Roadrunners who stayed alive with a 76-64 victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Jr. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams Jr. led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Tyler Beard added 19 points and six boards for the Matadors, who finished fourth and earned a first-round tournament bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nmeiksa led Hawai’i with 20 points, Akira Jacobs added 14 points and Beattie finished with 13 points and five rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big West Conference Standings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. UC San Diego 18-2<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. UC Irvine 17-3<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. UC Riverside 14-6<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Cal State Northridge 14-6<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. UC Santa Barbara 11-9<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. UC Davis 9-11<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Cal State Bakersfield 8-12<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 8-12<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. HAWAI\u2019I 7-13<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Long Beach State 3-17<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Cal State Fullerton 1-19<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    NOTE: <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2856,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}