They will not defend their championship.

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Despite four turnovers committed and erasing a 21-point deficit, the University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team fell short to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 73-68, on day two of the 2023 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday.

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JoVon McClanahan led the way for UH with 19 points and a game-high eight assists. Bernardo da Silva was next in line with 17 points and five rebounds, and Justin McKoy tallied 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

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Baye Ndongo led Georgia Tech with a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds on 10-for-12 shooting before he fouled out. Naithan George and Miles Kelly both tallied 14 points of their own to round out the double-digit scorers.

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"They came out ready to roll," Hawaiʻi coach Eran Ganot said of Georgia Tech. "I'm surprised we didn't."

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Georgia Tech scored 10 of the first 13 points of the game while Hawaiʻi took quite a bit to get moving. Two triples by McClanahan and an additional free throw put UH in the neighborhood.

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The 'Bows cut the gap down to a point, 12-11, with 14:44 remaining, but back-to-back buckets from the Yellow Jackets widened the gap again.

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Georgia Tech stung Hawaiʻi again with their athleticism and 3-point shooting and pulled away. They would end the first half up, 43-27.

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The first segment of the second half was all Georgia Tech. They scored nine of the first 13 points and pulled their gap to 21, 52-31. UH was not going down without a fight though.

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A da Silva layup at the 16-minute mark started a 21-3 Hawaiʻi run. At the same time, Georgia Tech went scoreless for almost the next 10 whole minutes.

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"A lot of it was 'do your job, trust your team!'" Ganot said.

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The Yellow Jackets would miss their next 16 shots and see their lead shrink in bunches. Kowacie Reeves stopped the bleeding with a second-chance layup with 6:14 remaining, but UH was far from done.

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A da Silva free throw with 4:35 remaining gave UH the lead, 59-58; unfortunately, Georgia Tech took it back almost immediately and would never let it go.

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The Yellow Jackets would outscore the 'Bows, 15-9, in the last 4:35 for the final arithmetic and ultimately ruin the 'Bows' comeback. Despite winning the second half, 41-30, a nearly 10-minute Georgia Tech scoring drought, and committing only two turnovers, it still was not enough for UH to win. McClanahan determined that offensive rebounds were the big hurdle, as Georgia Tech got 15 to UH's seven.

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"When we were up, we gave up an offensive rebound, and they got to the line, and they got another offensive rebound," McClanahan said. "I don't think we folded in any way. They found a way to get another possession, and that's where the gap closed."

Hawaiʻi now drops to 8-3 in the 2023-24 season. They will return to the Stan Sheriff Center on Sunday, Dec. 24 against the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs for third place overall in the 2023 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. HST, and the game can be seen on ESPN2.