LONG BEACH, CALIF. >> In various ways, members of the Hawaii basketball frontcourt came to terms with Long Beach State’s superior exhibition of paint pop-a-shot.
Beefy 49ers forward Temidayo Yussuf deposited all nine of his attempts in the hoop for 23 points as LBSU pounded UH inside, turning back the visitors 84-75 in the teams’ regular-season finale in the Walter Pyramid on Saturday. Behind the 255-pound sophomore Yussuf, the Beach tallied 44 paint points to UH’s 18.
“He killed us tonight,” said a candid Jack Purchase, who had a front-row seat after an ankle injury scare midway through the first half kept him out for the remainder.
Noah Allen, who led UH with 21 points in the loss, turned analytical. “That was a big deal. Yussuf had a career game; he didn’t miss.”
Gibson Johnson had already homed his thoughts on Thursday’s rematch with the Beach in the Big West tournament first round at the Honda Center. LBSU (14-18, 9-7) is the 4 seed and UH (14-15, 8-8) the 5; they’ll meet in the nightcap at about 6:30 Hawaii time.
“There’s nothing better than revenge,” Johnson said grimly.
Undoubtedly LBSU agrees; UH knocked LBSU out of the past two Big West tournaments. On Saturday’s senior night it avenged UH’s 114-107 overtime win in Honolulu on Jan. 14.
UH was primed to ride Friday’s tidings — that’s when the NCAA finally cleared the Rainbow Warriors for the postseason — to an effective start. Indeed, they appeared well past Thursday’s 68-59 loss at UC Davis and connected on seven of their first nine 3s, at one point leading by six.
But LBSU turned up its pressure, transforming it into a transition battle. Long outlet passes caught UH unaware more than once and an 11-0 run gave the Beach a six-point lead at halftime, when it was shooting 62.5 percent.
“It starts on defense. And I was terrible on defense,” Allen said. “Collectively we just didn’t do a good job.”
Yussuf was 6-for-6 by that point. UH mostly tried matching him bruiser-for-bruiser with freshman Zigmars Raimo at power forward once Purchase rolled his ankle going for a rebound nine minutes in.
“We have to do our work early,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Do our work to not allow posts to catch it under the rim. Obviously it’s a big part of our adjustment next time we play them.”
UH hopes to have Purchase back for tournament time. The team was relieved postgame as the Australian was walking around unassisted. An hour earlier, he was down on the court for a few minutes and had to be helped off.
“After it happened, I tried to get a jog up and down. I just couldn’t bear it right then,” Purchase said. “Might as well try to get ready for Thursday. Try to be smart about it.”
It’s always something at the Pyramid. UH dropped to 0-5 there as a Big West member, the only place in the conference it hasn’t won. This time the ’Bows fell short despite shooting 11-for-19 on 3s.
Leland Green contributed 14 points off the bench. Sheriff Drammeh had 12 points and six assists and Johnson scored 10. Freshman guard Matt Owies scored eight in 12 minutes.
The ’Bows cut down on their turnovers — only three of their 15 were in the second half — and drew within a single possession seven times but could not find a tying or go-ahead shot, even though several came from point-blank range.
“One of the recurring things unfortunately all season was our ability to finish around the rim,” Ganot said. “We missed some stone-cold layups. And one of the recurring things recently that’s been a concern is our inability to make free throws (12-for-21) and miss the front end (of 1-and-1s). You can’t quite get over the hump when a combination of those two things happen, and at critical times.”
Allen made a hook shot, UH forced a turnover and Allen hit Drammeh in stride for a bank shot to cut the LBSU lead to 65-64. Beach guard Evan Payne answered with a shot on the baseline, kicking off a 7-0 run for the hosts to extend to a 72-64 lead.
Allen ended that with a tough lefty layup in transition, but Noah Blackwell (17 points) countered with his fifth 3, a corner shot to make it a nine-point game.
LBSU continued to work it inside; Yussuf’s baby hook got him to 9-for-9 and Roschon Prince followed up on a miss to put the game out of reach, 81-68 with 1:53 left.
“We’ve got to find a good balance and hopefully play even better on Thursday,” Beach coach Dan Monson said. “Obviously, this was the easy one of the two. It was the one at home, and the one that doesn’t mean as much. We’ve got to understand that we’re in for a very difficult game on Thursday, but that’s what tournament time is for.”
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