Hawai’i Pulls Away In Final Minutes As Beach Falls On The Road

Saturday, January 14

Manoa, HI

9 p.m. PT

Long Beach State University

8-10,2-4Big West

Hawai'i

13-4,4-1Big West

Long Beach St.

Hawaii

Photo by: Nico Alba

Hawai’i Pulls Away In Final Minutes As Beach Falls On The Road

1/15/2023 12:38:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score - Hawaii Photo Gallery

Tone Hunter, Amari Stroud both finished with career-highs in scoring for LBSU.

By: Roger Kirk, Associate Athletics Director, Communications & Broadcast

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Long Beach State trailed by just a single point with less than 90 seconds to play, but Hawai'i picked up a critical defensive stop and answered with a 3-pointer from Noel Coleman to hold off the Beach on the road in a 79-70 win for the Rainbow Warriors.

                Long Beach State (8-10, 2-4 Big West) rode sophomore Tone Hunter early as the point guard had six quick points and the Beach pushed out to a 14-6 lead. A 3-pointer from Samuta Avea helped Hawai'i (13-4, 4-1 Big West) tie the score at 22-22, and the Rainbow Warriors held a 30-27 lead at halftime. That was despite Long Beach State holding UH to 27 percent shooting in the first half.

                A layup from AJ George helped Long Beach State retake the lead in the early minutes of the second half at 33-32, and neither team would lead by more than five until the final minute in a back-and-forth second half.

                Aboubacar Traore finished with his seventh double-double of the season, scoring 16 points with 11 rebounds to help keep the Beach in reach, along with career nights from Hunter, who scored 18 points and Amari Stroud who had 12 points with eight rebounds off of the bench. The Beach also got a lift from the return of Marcus Tsohonis, but missed Lassina Traore who played less than five minutes in the second half due to foul trouble.

                Despite that, the Beach had an opportunity to go up in the final minutes. Trailing 69-66, Tsohonis hit a jumper to but the lead back to one. After the Beach forced a defensive turnover, Stroud had a putback attempt that just missed, and Noel Coleman answered with a 3-pointer on the other end to put Hawai'i up four and in a position where the Beach had to foul to try to catch up in the final minutes. Coleman finished with 25 points while playing 38 minutes to lead the Rainbow Warriors on Saturday.

                Long Beach State returns to the Walter Pyramid to face a conference rival in Cal State Fullerton. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 19 with live coverage on ESPN+.