The University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team began their first road trip of February with a 79-63 loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs at Mott Athletics Center on Thursday. It was the first time UH lost at Mott Gym since 2020, and their first loss to Cal Poly in nine previous meetings.

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Gytis Nemeikša led the 'Bows with 13 points off the bench. Ryan Rapp was the only other player to crack double-digits with 10.

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Owen Koonce led Cal Poly with a whopping 20 points; Jarred Hyder was next with 18 and 4-for-9 from 3-point range. Both were 7-for-13 from the field.

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Akira Jacobs drew first blood with a triple just 28 seconds in. Harry Rouhliadeff responded to make the next layup following a layup by Cal Poly's Guzman Vasilic to make it 5-2 UH.

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Cal Poly came back to take the lead and held control for much of the first half. They led by as many as seven, but UH did not fold.

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Nemeikša buried a triple with 8:06 remaining to put UH down four, which generaged a 5-0 run, but Cal Poly made timely field goals to keep the lead a little longer.

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UH tried and succeeded to find a rhythm and took the lead back off a Tanner Christensen layup with five seconds left. They were ahead, 35-34, at the break.

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Cal Poly came firing out of the locker rooms to score nine of the first 11 points of the second half. They kept up with their 3-point shooting to keep Hawaiʻi back.

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UH took the lead off a Nemeikša jumper with 9:21 remaining, but they went cold from the field after that.

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Cal Poly would ultimately seize control to the tune of a 13-2 run to run away and win their third in the last four games.

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UH drops to 13-10 overall and 5-7 in the Big West, and things donʻt get easier. UH will stay on the road to take on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Saturday at 5 p.m. HST. You can listen to the game on ESPN Honolulu.