LONG BEACH, CALIF. >> There’s no shortage of reasons to close out the regular season strong.
Hawaii won’t soon forget its Big West regular-season championship celebration in UC Davis’ visitors’ locker room on Thursday. By edging the Aggies, the Rainbow Warriors claimed their first such title in 14 years, and just the third overall in 37 years of conference membership.
The Rainbows (24-4, 13-2 BWC) already have the Big West tournament No. 1 seed in their pocket going into today’s matchup at Long Beach State. An outright regular-season title is in their grasp if they win the 2 p.m. matchup, or if UC Irvine loses at UC Riverside.
The Rainbows also haven’t forgotten the 14-point beating The Beach handed them at the Stan Sheriff Center on Jan. 30, which snapped an eight-game winning streak.
“Our motivation has been to stay locked in in the moment,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “It’s served us well. It’s a quick turnaround. It’s a team that got us at our place, it’s a really good team and we’re trying to finish our regular season on a high note.”
There’s also the unbeaten conference road record (7-0) to consider; UH can become the first Big West team to run the table away from home since Pacific in 2005. It’s never been done in program history; the closest a UH team came in league play was 6-3 in the WAC of 2001-02.
Lastly, there’s the fact that there’s only one Big West venue where UH has not notched a victory: LBSU’s Walter Pyramid. The unusual 4,200-seat structure has so far been UH’s Big West version of another world wonder, the Great Wall, much like Nevada, New Mexico State and Utah State were the seemingly impenetrable barriers in the old WAC.
The third-place Beach (17-13, 11-4) has won eight of nine, including the 78-64 decision at the Stan Sheriff Center on Jan. 30, in which the 49ers grabbed 14 offensive rebounds for a bevy of putback scores.
UH also has won eight of nine. The 47-28 rebounding disparity in that game is still a sore spot for UH, which has generally outperformed its foes on the boards.
“We didn’t get beat on the boards against them, we got annihilated,” Ganot said. “We’re talking plus-20. That game is now maybe five weeks ago. Both teams have improved since then; both should be different, should’ve evolved.”
Point guard Justin Bibbins has emerged as the best playmaker in the league not named Roderick Bobbitt. Bibbins (4.9 assists per game) got hurt at the Sheriff, but the 5-foot-8 sophomore has rounded back into form. Bobbitt, meanwhile, is still two steals away from tying Tom Henderson’s career record of 160.
Wings Isaac Fleming and Aaron Valdes were nonfactors in the first meeting. Fleming came up gimpy in that game and Valdes saw his first action back from a toe injury. Now Fleming is off the team and Valdes is back in form.
“They’re a really good offensive team and they have a lot of guys who can score in a lot of different ways,” Valdes said after UH’s practice Friday night at the Pyramid. “Defending will be big for us. They beat us on the boards pretty good, too. We just gotta box out, find our man.”
UH has grown accustomed to dealing with senior moments; it’s the Rainbows’ third straight game featuring upperclassman ceremonies. It won on its own senior night by 11 over Cal State Northridge a week ago and came back to beat the Aggies on theirs, 67-65.
LBSU will honor wing Nick Faust and guard A.J. Spencer. Faust, a transfer from Maryland, is an all-conference-caliber player who erupted for 28 points and 14 rebounds in the win over UH.
Faust is second overall among Big West players in scoring at 17.0 ppg and leads the pack in conference scoring at 18.4. He’s coming off a 30-point outburst in a 75-73 win at Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday.
“He’s a very good shooter,” Valdes said. “He can score a lot of different ways. Posting up, he’s a good cutter too. He got a couple of them (like that) last time we played. So, just having more awareness and having seen him play a couple more times on TV, I got a good feel for his game. So it’ll be fun tomorrow night.”
