Long Beach State rallies past Warriors, 68-66
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jordan Roberts swished a 15-foot jumper from the left elbow with 0.5 seconds remaining tonight to lift Long Beach State to a pulsating 68-66 victory over Hawai’i in thrilling Big West Conference men’s basketball quarterfinal action at the Honda Center.
The 49ers overcame an 18-point first-half deficit to improve to 15-18 and will face regular season champion UC Irvine (28-5) in Friday’s semifinals. Barring an unlikely postseason tournament invitation, the Warriors’ season will end in heartbreak at 18-13.
The Warriors jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the game’s first four minutes and stretched it to 33-15 on Eddie Stansberry’s 3-pointer from the right wing with 5:53 remaining, but the 49ers used full-court pressure to disrupt Hawai’i’s offense and fueled a 14-2 run that closed it to 35-29 on Drew Cobb’s layup with 1:15 left.
The Warriors clung to the lead in the second half and built it back up to 12 points at 59-47 after Stansberry’s layup with 7:03 remaining, but full-court pressure forced them into more turnovers and fueled another Long Beach State comeback, this time with the 49ers taking a 63-61 lead after Cobb’s two free throws with 3:07 left.
Zigmars Raimo scored on a layup to tie it at 66-66 with 21.3 seconds remaining, but the 49ers wound the clock down to six seconds and worked the ball to Roberts, who elevated and lofted the game-winning high-arching jumper over the outstretched arms of Jack Purchase.
After a timeout, Drew Buggs’ inbounds pass was deflected and time expired.
Raimo led Hawai’i with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Brocke Stepteau added 12 points.
More details, including video highlights and interviews, will be posted later.
(Game photo courtesy Brandon Flores)
Big West Conference Tournament
Thursday’s Quarterfinal Results
No. 2 UC Santa Barbara 71, No. 7 CSUN 68
No. 3 Cal State Fullerton 75, No. 6 UC Davis 71 (OT)
No. 1 UC Irvine 63, No. 8 UC Riverside 44
No. 5 Long Beach State 68, No. 4 Hawai’i 66
Great effort! Great team grit. Going to miss three seniors. Could easily have been Hawaii in semifinals.
Maybe more postseason hopefully.
Witnessed the game. In person. What a terrible loss. Unacceptable. Inability to break the press. We looked like a high school team that choked under the press. Missed passed. Timid play by Raimo under the basket. A really bad pass by Eddie towards the end of game. Buggs and Purchase needed to be in the game as we were struggling. Missed foul shots on the. Front end. One and gone for the third straight year. We need to recruit some horses Ganot. We lost two good players We need another scoring guard that can handle the ball. A forward that is really athletic and is a scorer as well and an
Ganot, teach the team how to break the press or leave
Each of the seniors had opportunities to produce with the game on the line. It’s unfortunate that they came up short. I wouldn’t have passed up that open 3 at the end of the game if I was Jack, when he passed it to Sheriff in the corner.
Definitely need to recruit some athletic players able to create their own shot for next season.
Teams we Beat When WE PLAY…
Colorado Beating #1 Washington
Rhode Island Beat VCU
WITH THREE EXPERIENCED Point Guards (Sheriff Counts) AND JACK Who Needed to Stay in the Game to Pass OVER The Press, NO ONE Should have Extended PRESS Success Against The ‘Bows….
NEED TO Teach our 7~Footers to ALL Pass Over the Press and Go to the hoop along with Samuta & Hemsley…
More so NEED A couple of players (NOT EASY—Bobbitt, Jankovich, Q…) with KILLER INSTINCT !
Should NOT Be Losing to Lesser Teams or Games where we hold Controlling Leads with 5 minutes to go…
——
Whatever WE May think of Coach Laura…
her teams keep losing their Best Players (Megan Huff, Makenna Woodfolk) they still play tough…
Championship Game tomorrow …
I had to turn it off the last few minutes, unfortunately this team more than once this season completely falls apart in the last few minutes of the game. And yes.. Teach these guys to beat a press break! How many times did they throw it in the corner to get trapped and make bad passes? So dam frustrating watching a team beat themselves with careless mistakes. Coaches fault not preparing them.
On a positive note Its been fun watching this team all in all, and look forward to them work on their game over the summer for next season. Congrats to the seniors for a great few years! Sad to watch them go
jjay – Share your pain. I hesitated to go and decided to support the team at the last minute. What a big mistake.
Our coaching is totally unacceptable. We have witnessed too many 2nd half collapses throughout this season and the past 2 seasons since the hiring of Ganot. We’ve had leads to start the 2nd half only to lose the game as the players run the offense until the shot clock is close to expiring and then force up a shot. In doing so, they pass up good shots early on the shot clock and then have to put up bad shots to avoid a shot clock violation; turn the ball over while running the offense and the opposing team scores on each occasion; or players get “gun shy” and don’t want to shoot because they missed previous shots. When you have a lead, keep pressing on and take those good shots even if early on during the shot clock. Take advantage of numbers and get point off of fast breaks. IMO, we have a “Norm Chow” basketball coach. Get a lead, run the clock, only to have the other team win in the end.
Free throws? Do they not shoot free throws in practice or on their own time? We call Ziggy, “Mr. miss one, make one.” If we’re lucky.
Not being able to break the press – players are taught this in high school. This is a college team from crying out loud and coaches should be able to make the appropriate adjustments or substitutions as needed. TAVS – I hear you loud and clear!
Parkpill – On recruiting, go to bigwest.org and see who the other teams have listed as recruits for next season and tell us what Hawaii lists. http://www.bigwest.org/sports/mbball/release.pdf Scrolll down to pg. 9 or 40. Some teams list 4 to 5 recruits for next year. Your answer will support “one and done minus one!” As long as we are “one and done” like we have been in the past years, the program will not be able to attract 2 to 3 good quality recruits and will be “one and done” for years to come. We have Jessiya Villa returning from his mission next season. We hope?
Attendance at this season’s games was very low similar to football. We’ve got to wonder why? They fluff the schedule up front so they go into conference play with a decent record only to lose in the end.
To All of the Hawaii UH Men’s Basketball fans – Let’s face it. The University Administration is happy to have a coach who has got us out from under NCAA sanctions and has good “Student” athletes. This coach talks about this being a “culture” A culture for most of us means winning games so we have no culture. Winning is not a priority by this Administration. Winning is a bonus after all other things. We’ve got to make winning a priority, find innovative ways to offer a better salary to attract a coach that can recruit and win games. The State of Hawaii is buzzing when we have a winning team and this equates to better economy during these times.
Dave Matlin – wake up!