The Hawaii men’s basketball team responded from an emotional defeat with a satisfying victory against a frequent rival.

UH’s salve for the sting of its missed opportunity at UC Irvine on Thursday was an 89-82 win over Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday afternoon.

Wings Dre Bullock (26 points) and Isaac Finlinson (19) posted season scoring highs and the Rainbow Warriors (16-5, 8-3 Big West) recorded their third straight split of a BWC road trip.

With the game on the line, Bullock stepped back for a baseline jumper with under 30 seconds left to help stake his team to a three-point lead. LBSU, in its second year under former UH assistant and Chaminade alum Chris Acker, unraveled in the final moments.

“I think that’s our biggest win of the year,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in his postgame radio appearance with ESPN Honolulu. UH improved to 5-0 coming off a loss.

UH shot 64% in the second half and a season-best 58% for the game, but had to fend off LBSU (8-15, 4-7) as the Beach crashed the glass for a 25-8 advantage in second-chance points.

The ‘Bows were burned 22-0 on fast-break points in Thursday’s 87-76 overtime setback at UCI’s Bren Events Center that saw them fall out of first-place standing. But they flipped that into a 17-2 advantage against LBSU. Acker, with longtime UH assistant John Montgomery on his staff for the second season, directed his team to press for much of the game but it did not yield a decisive turnover advantage.

Bullock shot just 1-for-10 and struggled as a whole in the UCI loss. But the South Dakota transfer came back with what Ganot considered his best all-around game — and the highest-scoring game for a UH player this season. He shot 10-for-17 from the field, 6-for-6 from the line, grabbed nine rebounds and dealt four assists with just one turnover.

Hunter Erickson, acting as point guard for the fourth straight game with Aaron Hunkin-Claytor out with a foot injury, had some costly “pick-six”-style turnovers late among his eight giveaways against UCI — the same team he beat with a rousing buzzer-beater in Honolulu a few weeks ago. After UH rallied late in the second half at the Bren, UCI ran away with it with the first seven points in overtime and guard Jurian Dixon punctuated the result with an uncontested breakaway dunk in the final seconds. It smacked of payback for Erickson’s gestures in the direction of the visitors bench after the emotional finish in Honolulu.

Ganot, in a phone interview with Spectrum News afterward, was stung by the loss that could’ve given UH its first home-and-home sweep of Russell Turner’s Anteaters since his first season of 2015-16.

Two days later, UH appeared to have shaken it off. Erickson had eight assists against just two turnovers and 13 points.

Finlinson, who has moved into the starting lineup for Hunkin-Claytor, drove to the rim early for a layup and a dunk and sank his first four 3-point attempts.

Center Isaac Johnson continued his pattern of quiet first halves with strong seconds. He put in 10 of his 14 points after the break.

LBSU was without freshman Gavin Sykes, its leading scorer at 18.2 points per game. Shaquil Bender hit four 3s in the first seven minutes to help the Beach to a quick nine-point lead. Bender finished with 22, as did forward Petar Majstrorovic.

After the Beach cut it to five with under six minutes left, Erickson supplied a turnaround jumper in the paint and a left-wing 3-pointer to push the lead back to 10.

Bullock broke away for a two-hand stuff with three minutes left to push it back to 10.

With UH clinging to a five-point lead, Johnson was called for a flagrant 1 for pulling a Beach player down around the neck during a rebound with 1:09 left. The Beach tallied four points on the extended possession.

Bullock then hit his long 2-point jumper to surpass his previous UH best of 23.

LBSU called timeout with 24.2 seconds left and the Beach turned it over unforced in the halfcourt. Bullock hit free throws to seal it.

UH hosts UC San Diego in a single-game week Saturday.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.