LONG BEACH, Calif. — It took a while — a long while, actually — but Riley Luettgerodt finally found his shooting form for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team last night.

Luettgerodt broke out of a season-long slump to score a career-high 23 points, leading the Rainbow Warriors to a 93-78 victory over Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid.

"It's been a tough year for me up to now," the 6-foot-5 junior said. "But the coaches always had confidence in me. They kept putting me in games and telling me to shoot, so I decided I had to show my own confidence."

Luettgerodt played 33 minutes off the bench, and shot 6 of 9 from the field, and 10 of 10 on free throws. He also had a career-high eight assists, and grabbed six rebounds.

"Riley Luettgerodt was the X-factor tonight," Hawai'i point guard Matt Gibson said. "He came in and gave us a huge lift off the bench."

The 'Bows struggled early in the game against the smaller and quicker 49ers, so Wallace inserted Luettgerodt in place of 6-8 starter P.J. Owsley. Luettgerodt entered the game with 13 minutes remaining in the first half, and stayed in the rest of the way.

With the smaller lineup in the game for the second half, the 'Bows ran their flex offense over and over, and it seemed to wear down the 49ers.

"We didn't think they wanted to play defense against our flex offense the whole time, so we kept running it and we kept finding open guys under the basket," Luettgerodt said.

Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said of Luettgerodt: "That was a breakout night for him. He was really cutting without the ball and (his teammates) found him."

Luettgerodt said Wallace's patience finally paid off.

"For a while there, I couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, but Coach Wallace told me to keep shooting," Luettgerodt said. "The last game (against Utah State) he told me if I didn't shoot, he was going to take me out."

Luettgerodt scored 11 points at Utah State Wednesday. This is the first time this season he has recorded back-to-back double-digit scoring games.

Earlier this season, Luettgerodt had a stretch when he missed 25 consecutive 3-pointers.

"The ball just wasn't falling, but I knew I could get through it," he said.

As a sophomore at Chemeketa Community College (Ore.) last season, Luettgerodt averaged 26.7 points per game.

"Hopefully, this will keep going for me," he said. "I know it's getting to the end of the season, but we can still make a run, and I want to help the team any way I can."

ONE SHOT AWAY FROM FREE THROW RECORD

Hawai'i went 31 of 33 from the free-throw line in last night's victory.

The school record for free- throw percentage in a game is .970, when the 1995-96 'Bows went 32 of 33.

The 'Bows could have tied the record last night, but Matt Lojeski — the team's best free- throw shooter — missed one with 38 seconds left in the game.

Riley Luettgerodt and Matt Gibson each went 10 for 10 on free throws, and became the first Hawai'i players since 2003 (Carl English) to go perfect at the line with at least 10 attempts. The individual record is 13 of 13 by Victor Kelly in 1974.

SHORT STOP AT HOME BEFORE NEXT ROAD GAME

The 'Bows are scheduled to return to Honolulu today, but only for a few days.

Hawai'i's next game is scheduled for Saturday at San Jose State. The 'Bows will catch up on school work this week, and practice for a few days at home before departing for San Jose, Calif., Thursday.

Hawai'i's next home game is scheduled for March 1 against Idaho.

NOTES

WAC teams went 7-2 this weekend in the non-conference/BracketBusters games. The only teams to lose were San Jose State and Idaho.

Sophomore guard Dominic Waters twisted his ankle in the first half of last night's game and did not return. The injury did not appear serious, and he is expected to play in Hawai'i's next game.

Among the crowd of 2,385 in the Walter Pyramid was around 200 Hawai'i fans, including Riley Wallace's children and grandchildren.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.