An ailing Long Beach State freshman — 6-foot-4 combo guard Gavin Sykes — administered the pain in an 84-75 victory to spoil Hawaii’s senior night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 5,468 saw the Beach score 24 of the final 39 points to also sabotage the Rainbow Warriors’ opportunity to claim a share of their first regular-season title since 2016.

UH and UC Irvine entered the final day of the regular season tied atop the Big West. UCI defeated UC Davis to clinch the top seed in next week’s eight-team Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nev. The ’Bows missed a chance to share the title when their second-half rally ran out of steam. The Beach already were eliminated from postseason contention.

“For us, tonight was a championship game,” said LBSU coach Chris Acker, a former UH assistant coach. “I told these guys before the game, we’re building a legacy at Long Beach State. These guys are a part of that legacy. And how do you want to be remembered? At the end of the day, people in Long Beach will be talking about this win for a long time. We came in here and did something nobody thought we could get done. Hawaii is obviously an unbelievable team and a formidable championship program. And I’m glad our guys were able to get a win to end our season.”

The ’Bows turned to a full-court press to force six LBSU turnovers in a 4:06 span to turn a double-digit deficit into a 58-55 lead with 11:03 to play.

“We’ve been in those situations before,” said Sykes, who missed the past Thursday’s game because of an ailment. “I told the guys before they started pressing, we need to get through it and we’ll win this game.”

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It was 60-all when Peter Majstororic hit a jumper over UH point guard Hunter Erickson with 7:45 to play. Isaiah Lewis’ three-point play extended the Beach’s lead to 65-60.

Later, Sykes hit three 3s in a 1:11 span to end the suspense.

Sykes finished with 34 points on 10-for-17 shooting, including 5-for-8 on 3s.

“It was my seniors and my personal drive to get back out there,” Sykes said of overcoming ailments to return to the lineup. “I wanted to make sure we ended the season strong. It was exactly what we did.”

UH finished the regular season 22-8 overall and 14-6 in the Big West. As the second seed, the ’Bows will have two byes leading to the semifinals in the Big West Tournament.

“We didn’t get it done to lock up that tie for first place,” Erickson said. “We got the job done to secure that second seed and get to the semifinals. It is what it is. We’re looking forward to our bigger goal of winning the conference tournament and getting into the NCAA Tournament. That’s our goal. That’s what I came here to do, and I believe we can do that.”

The ’Bows scored the first five points and led 14-9 on Erickson’s left-handed layup with 12:30 to play. But the Beach went on an 8-1 run to go in front 17-15. Although the score would be tied two more times, the Beach never trailed the rest of the half.

Erickson, who has taken over at the point following Aaron Hunkin-Claytor’s season-ending injury, broke out of recent slump in which he averaged 7.5 points the past eight games. It took only a half for the Erickson to match a season-high 18 points. He finished with 23 points.

Excluding Erickson’s 3-point shooting (4-for-5), the other ’Bows were a combined 2-for-21 from behind the arc.

“It’s real disappointing,” offensive coordinator Brad Davidson said. “We didn’t play well enough to win.”

After the game, UH honored seniors Erickson, Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson, Harry Rouhliadeff, Dre Bullock, Gytis Nemeiksa and Yacine Toumi. When he was introduced, Johnson made his arm-chomping motion and then flashed a shaka sign before embracing head coach Eran Ganot.