LONG BEACH \u2014 Finding points to fill the scoring void left by the injury to Gavin Sykes wasn\u2019t a problem for the Long Beach State men\u2019s basketball team on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Getting crucial stops on the defensive end was the bigger issue.<\/p>\n
LBSU rallied from a 15-point deficit with just over seven minutes remaining against visiting Hawaii to get within one with 54 seconds left in their Big West Conference matchup, but the hosts couldn\u2019t get over the hump in an 89-82 loss at the Pyramid.<\/p>\n
Dre Bullock, who scored a season-high 26 points for the Rainbow Warriors after a 1-for-10 shooting performance in an 87-76 overtime loss at UC Irvine on Thursday, which dropped them out of a tie for first in conference play, sank a step-back jumper from the baseline with 28 seconds left for a three-point lead.<\/p>\n
LBSU called timeout and set up a play, but Petar Majstorovic\u2019s pass from out of the post to Shaquil Bender above the 3-point line went out of bounds with 13.9 seconds left and Hawaii was able to seal the win at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get a shot on the rim at the end of that game,\u201d LBSU coach Chris Acker said. \u201cI\u2019ll kick myself in the butt for just not putting us in a better situation for as hard as they battled to be in that game. Down three, we\u2019ve got to get a shot on the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawaii (16-5 overall, 8-3 Big West) shot 58% from the floor and 8 for 14 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
Sykes had a boot on his right foot and missed his second straight game with an ankle injury. The freshman shooting guard leads LBSU in scoring (18.2 ppg) and is averaging 19.4 points per game in conference play, which ranks second in the Big West.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we miss him, but the identity of this program has to be that we play hard, we fight, we compete,\u201d Acker said. \u201cWhatever five is on the floor, our expectations don\u2019t change, so I hope in a little bit we get Gavin back and he gets healthy and he\u2019s with us again, but again, I\u2019m just really proud of this group and how they competed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majstorovic and Bender each scored 22 points as the only players in double figures for LBSU (8-15, 4-7), which has lost four in a row.<\/p>\n
Bender, a senior transfer from Manhattan, moved into the starting lineup in place of Sykes and made four 3-pointers in the first seven minutes to help Long Beach to an 18-11 lead.<\/p>\n
Bender came in averaging 8.9 points and shooting just 29.9% from 3-point range, but the Philadelphia native was a combined 5 for 8 from behind the arc in his previous two home games and 4 for 7 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHome games, I just love being in here,\u201d Bender said. \u201cWhen I came on and I hit my first one, and then everybody was cheering, it just felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n
LBSU\u2019s lead grew to as many as nine points before Hawaii had a seven-point possession that began when Isaiah Kerr sank a 3-pointer at the same time Dallas Washington was shoving Isaac Johnson in the chest, resulting in a technical foul following a review.<\/p>\n
Johnson made both free throws and Bullock scored on a drive on the ensuing possession to cut the lead to 22-20 with 9:42 left in the half. Neither team led by more than a possession until Hawaii scored the final eight points of the first half, culminating with Bullock grabbing a rebound and taking it end-to-end for a layup at the buzzer for a 36-31 lead.<\/p>\n
The Warriors used another 10-0 burst to extend their lead to 48-35 with 15:11 left in the game. Isaac Finlinson came off the bench for Hawaii and made four 3-pointers in just under three minutes to keep Long Beach from making a push early in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinlinson made a couple huge 3s down the stretch of that game that opened the game up and got (the lead) to 10,\u201d Acker said.<\/p>\n
LBSU managed to cut the 15-point deficit to five and then took advantage of a flagrant foul on Hawaii during a missed 3-point attempt by Long Beach with 1:09 left.<\/p>\n
Leopold Levillain made both free throws to cut the lead to 83-80. Majstorovic was then fouled on the ensuing possession and made both of his free throws to make it a one-point game, but that\u2019s as close as it would get.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got eight scholarship guys right now, and so our guys are battling, but our margin for error is so slim,\u201d Acker said. \u201cWhen you dig yourself a 10-point hole, and you\u2019re constantly fighting to get back in the game the entire game, it\u2019s really hard to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
Long Beach State plays at UC San Diego on Thursday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
BIG WEST STANDINGS<\/p>\n
Through Saturday, Jan. 31<\/p>\n
Team \u2013 Overall, Big West<\/p>\n
UC Irvine \u2013 15-7, 8-2<\/p>\n
UC Santa Barbara \u2013 15-7, 8-3<\/p>\n
Hawaii \u2013 16-5, 8-3<\/p>\n
UC Davis \u2013 13-9, 6-5<\/p>\n
Cal State Northridge \u2013 13-10, 6-5<\/p>\n
UC San Diego \u2013 15-8, 5-6<\/p>\n
Cal State Fullerton \u2013 10-13, 5-6<\/p>\n
Cal Poly (SLO) \u2013 9-14, 5-6<\/p>\n
Long Beach State \u2013 8-15, 4-7<\/p>\n
UC Riverside \u2013 8-15, 3-8<\/p>\n
Cal State Bakersfield \u2013 8-15, 2-9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH \u2014 Finding points to fill the scoring void left by the injury to Gavin Sykes wasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[29668,4213,1327,131,133,132,26758,127],"class_list":["post-160065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-big-west-conference","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-state-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}