LONG BEACH, Calif. — If only the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team were in the Big West Conference this season.

It wasn't part of BracketBusters, but the Rainbow Warriors busted the first-place team in the Big West last night in a 93-78 victory over Long Beach State.

A crowd of 2,385 at the Walter Pyramid watched the 49ers lose at home for the first time this season.

"It's definitely a big win," Hawai'i senior co-captain Matt Lojeski said. "It helps our confidence, it helps our RPI. We just needed a win, it didn't matter who it was against. But to get it against a first-place team is big for us."

The 'Bows improved to 15-12, although they are still in seventh place in the Western Athletic Conference at 5-8. It was the most points Hawai'i has scored in a game this season.

Long Beach State dropped to 18-7, including 10-1 in the Walter Pyramid. The 49ers lead the Big West at 9-2.

"It's a conference pride thing," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "And we were playing the best in the Big West."

The 'Bows did it by rallying twice — from a deficit of 12 points in the first half, then from down nine in the second half.

They also did it with ironman performances from Lojeski, Matt Gibson, Bobby Nash, Riley Luettgerodt and Ahmet Gueye.

Those five played the entire second half, when Hawai'i out-scored the 49ers, 54-39. All five finished with double-figure points, and Lojeski, Nash and Gueye played the entire game.

"It was a hard game for them to go 40 minutes tonight, but they were true Rainbow Warriors," Wallace said. "They were able to do it."

Luettgerodt led the way with his best game in a Hawai'i uniform. The 6-foot-5 junior scored a career-high 23 points, and passed for a career-high eight assists.

"I got a couple of easy buckets early, some layups, and that got me going," he said. "And then staying on the floor for the second half probably helped with my confidence."

Lojeski added 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Gueye contributed 16 points and six rebounds. Nash scored 15, including 13 in the first half to help keep the 'Bows close.

Gibson started the game, got benched after one minute, then came back to finish with 15 points, a career-high 12 rebounds, and six assists.

"When I make a mistake and Coach Wallace takes me out, I get mad and I don't like it," Gibson said. "But he knows me better than I know myself, I think. Because I settled down, got my head back in it and went back in there to help the team."

Interestingly, Hawai'i got off to perhaps its worst start of the season. Wallace called it the worst start for a team in his 20 seasons as Hawai'i head coach.

The 'Bows committed 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game and fell behind 24-12. Many of the turnovers were "embarrassing," according to Wallace.

"I never had a team come out as ugly as this team did tonight," he said.

But then the 'Bows went "small," inserting Luettgerodt into the lineup for 6-8 starter P.J. Owsley.

"That helped us match up (with Long Beach State's) quickness," Wallace said.

The pace then picked up, and the 'Bows went on a 20-5 surge to take a 32-29 lead with 4:21 remaining in the half. Nash scored eight points during the surge, including back-to-back 3-pointers.

The score was tied at 39 at intermission, and Wallace stayed with the small lineup for the second half.

"Bobby Nash is a big reason why we can do that," Gibson said. "He can play so many positions. When he moved down to (power forward), that made us a lot quicker."

The score was tied at 51 with 14:52 remaining, but the 49ers then pushed ahead with an 11-2 run to take a 62-53 lead with 11:53 left. Aaron Nixon highlighted the surge with a 3-pointer from about 27 feet away.

"We had to hang in there and grind it out," Luettgerodt said. "We didn't close out on a lot of their shooters, but we felt like they couldn't shoot that good for long. We thought they'd shoot their way out of it."

Sure enough, Hawai'i responded with a 13-0 run to take a 68-63 lead with 8:07 remaining. The run was aided by a technical foul on Nixon for unsportsmanlike conduct when he bumped into Luettgerodt.

Long Beach State head coach Larry Reynolds said he wanted to use a full-court defensive press to wear down the 'Bows, but the plan may have backfired. Hawai'i did commit a season-high 23 turnovers, but only nine in the second half.

"I kind of asked my guys to play a little different style than we have been playing and I'll take the blame for that," Reynolds said. "We probably got a little leg-weary in the second half."

The 49ers made 10 3-pointers in the game, but went only 3 of 14 from long range in the second half.

The 'Bows kept the lead for the final eight minutes, and increased it in the closing minutes by going 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.

Hawai'i had its best free-throw shooting night of the season, going 31 of 33 (93.9 percent). In contrast, Long Beach State went 8 of 15.

The 'Bows also out-rebounded the 49ers, 38-29.

Nixon led the 49ers with 17 points, including four 3s.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.