The first win feels great!

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After dropping a heartbreaker to UC Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball team flipped the script and defeated the Cal Poly Mustangs, 68-55, on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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Gytis Nemeikša led UH with 19 points on 6-for-13 shooting and was 3-for-6 from 3-point range. Tom Beattie was next with 15 off the bench on 6-for-9 shooting, and Tanner Christensen logged a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

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Owen Koonce was the only Mustang to break double-digits with 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting and made both of his triples.

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Neither team saw points for the first 90 seconds until Nemeikša buried a triple to put UH on the board first. UH raced out to an early 8-1 lead after an Akira Jacobs triple with 13:23 remaining.

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After being held to a single Koonce free throw made, Cal Poly finally got their first field goal via an Isaac Jessup triple with 12:48 to go. An earlier basket interference call was overturned when it was 5-3 UH early, and the score was back to 5-1 UH. Jessup hit back-to-back triples to pull Cal Poly within one, but UH had no intention to surrender the lead.

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After an Aaron Price Jr. hook shot tied the score at nine, UH went on a 9-2 run to pull some distance on Cal Poly. It was now 18-11 UH with 4:43 remaining. A Guzman Vasilic triple and Mac Riniker second-chance layup cut the gap to four, but that was as close as Cal Poly would get to a win.

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At halftime, UH had a 27-22 lead on Cal Poly. It was a decent first half for the 'Bows, as they committed six turnovers, but Cal Poly committed just four.

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UH began the second half lava hot to the tune of a 15-2 run and a double-digit lead. They did not let the lead dip below 10 the rest of the way.

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UH extended its lead to as many as 20 and withstood an 8-0 Cal Poly run with just under 11 minutes to go. A Jacobs layup put the gap back to 13, and UH maintained that double-digit lead the rest of the way.

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Cal Poly got a last hurrah when Luka Tarlac got a second-chance dunk to go with 16 seconds left for the final arithmetic.

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With the win, UH is now 1-2 in Big West play and 9-5 overall while Cal Poly drops to 0-4 in Big West play and 6-10 overall. UH is now tied for eighth with Santa Barbara in the Big West standings with 17 games remaining after Cal State Fullerton fell to UC San Diego, 90-51, earlier this week.

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UH will hit the road to face off against the UC Riverside Highlanders on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. HST and against the winless Cal State Fullerton Titans on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 11 a.m. HST. You can listen to both games on the radio at ESPN Honolulu and watch the Fullerton game on ESPN Wildcard.