HONOLULU \u2014 Gavin Sykes capped his freshman season with one last offensive barrage and led the Long Beach State basketball team to an 84-75 victory over Hawaii in the regular-season finale for both teams on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.<\/p>\n
With four minutes left, Sykes buried three consecutive 3-point shots to extend a four-point lead to 13, part of his 34-point effort that helped LBSU close its season on a high note and spoiled Hawaii\u2019s hopes for a share of the Big West Conference regular-season title.<\/p>\n
Sykes shot 10 for 17 from the field (5 for 8 from 3-point range) and 9 for 14 from the free-throw line as Long Beach (10-21 overall, 6-14 Big West) handed the Rainbow Warriors (22-8, 14-6) a rare home loss. Shaquil Bender added 20 points and six rebounds and Petar Majstorovic finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n
Hawaii, which would have shared the Big West crown with UC Irvine with a win<\/a>, instead finished alone in second place with just its third loss in 19 home games this season. The Warriors had already clinched a double-bye into the semifinals of next week\u2019s eight-team conference tournament<\/a> in Henderson, Nevada.<\/p>\n Hunter Erickson scored 23 points to lead four Hawaii players in double-digits. Fellow senior Isaac Johnson had 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Isaac Finlinson added 15 points and Dre Bullock scored 14.<\/p>\n Hawai started strong, taking a 14-9 lead over the first eight minutes, but LBSU stayed the course behind a balanced offense. A Sykes 3-pointer gave the visitors their first lead, and two more from Bender and Isaiah Lewis fueled a 10-0 run for a 32-22 advantage with four minutes left in the first half. Long Beach, which shot 53% in the first half, made eight of its final nine shots and held a 44-34 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n Hawaii made a push when LBSU had a stretch with six turnovers in four minutes. That helped the Warriors erase the lead with a 14-2 run, and they eventually took a 59-55 lead on a Harry Rouhliadeff three-point play with 11 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n Long Beach regained the lead behind an 11-2 run and went ahead 65-60 on a three-point play from Lewis with 7:23 left, but Hawaii remained within striking distance and trailed just 68-64 after a runner from Finlinson with just over four minutes left.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Sykes took over. With the Long Beach defense holding tough, the Big West\u2019s second-leading scorer drained shots from behind the arc on three straight possessions for a 77-64 lead with 2:19 left. LBSU closed out the win from there, the program\u2019s first win in Honolulu since 2022.<\/p>\n Sykes finished the season with 542 points to shatter the LBSU freshman scoring record in just 28 games played, averaging 19.4 ppg for the season, a mark that will likely rank in the Top 10 nationally among freshmen.<\/p>\n Long Beach, which did not qualify for the conference tournament, shot 55% overall and 9 for 18 from long range while outrebounding the Warriors 38-27. Hawaii shot 42% overall and just 6 for 26 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n FINAL BIG WEST STANDINGS<\/p>\n Through Saturday, March 7<\/p>\n Team \u2013 Overall, Big West<\/p>\n UC Irvine \u2013 22-10, 15-5<\/p>\n Hawaii \u2013 22-8, 14-6<\/p>\n UC San Diego \u2013 22-10, 12-8<\/p>\n Cal State Northridge \u2013 19-13, 12-8<\/p>\n Cal State Fullerton \u2013 17-15, 12-8<\/p>\n UC Santa Barbara \u2013 18-13, 11-9<\/p>\n UC Davis \u2013 18-13, 11-9<\/p>\n Cal Poly (SLO) \u2013 14-18, 10-10<\/p>\n Long Beach State \u2013 10-22, 6-14<\/p>\n UC Riverside \u2013 10-22, 5-15<\/p>\n Cal State Bakersfield \u2013 8-24, 2-18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU \u2014 Gavin Sykes capped his freshman season with one last offensive barrage and led the Long Beach…\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-210220","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\/210220","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=210220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210220\/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=210220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}