LIHU‘E — A wild finish ended with Gib Arnold and the Hawai‘i Warriors suffering their first loss of the young season, a 54-53 last-second defeat at the hands of Cal Poly, Wednesday night in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Chris O’Brien
LIHU‘E — A wild finish ended with Gib Arnold and the Hawai‘i Warriors suffering their first loss of the young season, a 54-53 last-second defeat at the hands of Cal Poly, Wednesday night in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Chris O’Brien had a tip-in at the buzzer to send the Mustangs (3-3) to the one-point victory.
The Warriors (5-1) went up by one with 22 seconds remaining on a Joston Thomas layup off a pass from Zane Johnson for a 53-52 edge.
Cal Poly’s Shawn Lewis missed on a jumper and Will Donahue was off the mark on an offensive rebound and putback attempt, but O‘Brien got enough of the ball and scored to give the home team a hard-fought win.
Turnovers were the undoing of Arnold’s club, who shot the ball well enough to win comfortably. UH was over 50 percent from the field (18 of 35) and knocked down 12 of 17 free-throw attempts. Comparitively, Cal Poly shot just 33 percent (18 of 54) from the floor and 20 percent (5 of 25) from three-point range.
The Warriors also outrebounded the Mustangs 31-22, while swatting six shots in the game.
But the turnovers, 27 on the night for Hawai‘i, led to 22 Cal Poly points and allowed to Mustangs to take 19 more shots than the Warriors and keep the game close. The Mustangs had 13 turnovers.
Lewis had a game-high 15 points for Cal Poly, though he shot just 3-for-13 from the field. Lewis knocked down three 3-pointers and was a perfect 6-for-6 at the foul line.
David Hanson had 14 points and O’Brien had 11, including the game-winner.
Johnson led UH with 11 points and four assists, followed by Thomas with 10 points and four rebounds.
Trevor Wiseman and Bobby Miles had eight points apiece, with Vander Joaquim scoring six and pulling down 11 rebounds. Bo Barnes also had six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
Hiram Thompson was just 1 of 5 from the floor for four points, though he had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Thomas was the main culprit of the turnover woes, garnering eight on the night.
Cal Poly took control early, grabbing a 16-6 lead at the 13:03 mark of the opening half. UH responded with a 12-5 run to get back within three and then closed the half on a 10-2 run to take a 28-26 lead to halftime.
Neither team got much separation in the second half, though the Warriors took their biggest lead of the night at 38-33 on a Miles 3-pointer.
Cal Poly responded to take a 52-48 lead, but fouled Johnson on a 3-pointer with 1:01 to play. The guard knocked down all three at the line to bring his team back within one.
UH then took the lead on the Thomas layup before the final sequence.
The Warriors have one more road battle before they return to Manoa. Hawai‘i will take on BYU at 1 p.m. Hawaiian (4 p.m. local) on Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
They then head home for a pair of games against Hawai‘i Pacific and Chicago State before the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic begins Dec. 22.
Butler, Baylor, Utah, Florida State, San Diego, Mississippi State and Washington State will join Hawai‘i for the holiday tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center, Sept. 22-25.
