{"id":2240,"date":"2025-01-05T08:59:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T18:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=2240"},"modified":"2025-01-07T22:27:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T08:27:45","slug":"warriors-run-shoot-past-cal-poly-68-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/05\/warriors-run-shoot-past-cal-poly-68-55\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors run & shoot past Cal Poly, 68-55"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hawai’i forward Gytis Nemeiksa scored a game-high 19 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out four assists and made two steals to help the Warriors defeat Cal Poly. (Chris Kadooka photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Stealing the show from a “showtime”-type opponent, Hawai’i shot past visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday night, 68-55, in Big West Conference men’s basketball action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An appreciative crowd of 3,328 in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Gytis Nemeiksa score a game-high 19 points with nine rebounds and Tom Beattie add 15 points to help the Warriors improve to 9-5 overall and 1-2 in league play. Owen Koonce scored 15 points to lead the Mustangs, who fell to 6-10, 0-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cal Poly, under new head coach Mike DeGeorge, brought in an up-tempo system that is a major departure from past Mustangs teams that were more defensive and halfcourt-oriented. Cal Poly lost in overtime to perennial contender UC Irvine, 98-89, at home on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But against UH on Saturday, it was quite a different story as the Warriors dictated the tempo early and never trailed in building a halftime lead of 27-22, and then pulled away in the second half even after the Mustangs finally shifted into higher gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m really proud of our team, because of the stakes — quick turnaround after a tough loss (to UC Santa Barbara on Thursday),” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “I’m proud of the maturity and leadership of our group. It was an interesting game, pretty ugly offensively in the first half, although I think we started to find a rhythm to end the half. Defensively, I’m really proud of our guys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Big themes in the game were our defense, our sharing the ball — especially to end the first half and start the second half — and our mindset coming out of the half.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Warriors began the second half with a 22-8 run to extend the lead to 49-30 after Harry Rouhliadeff’s layup with 13:20 remaining, but Aaron Price answered with a jump hook to ignite an 8-0 run that closed it to 49-38 on Koonce’s transition 3-pointer from the left wing with 10:53 still to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after a timeout, Akira Jacobs came off the bench and promptly converted a three-point play to start an 11-2 run capped by his own short jumper to push the lead to 60-40 at the six-minute mark, and Cal Poly could not get closer than 13 points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we just stopped their transition offense, which is their strength,” said Nemeiksa, who also had four assists and two steals. “When they need to play their (halfcourt) motion, it’s just harder for them. So we took their base (offense) out of them, and it was easier for us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs shot just 25 percent (8 of 32) from the field in the first half, including only 3 of 15 (20 percent) from 3-point range. For the game, Cal Poly shot 33.8 percent (22 of 65) from the field, and finished 7 of 31 (22.6 percent) from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our coaches did a great job of prepping us in this short turnaround, to know what they’re doing and how to guard them,” said Beattie, who shot 6 for 9 from the field and added three rebounds and two assists. “Coach has been stressing the whole week to stay disciplined — invite the challenge, see the different looks we’re get, and keep going.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center Tanner Christensen contributed 11 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and one block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The other subtle part was when they made their run and cut it to 11 (points) — with that kind of team — we really responded and got it back to 20,” Ganot said. “It’s a humbling game, night in and night out you’ll get a battle. It’s gonna hurt you for a second, you gotta enjoy it for a second, and then get back to work. Our league is going to be very balanced this year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UH hits the road this week, starting with a game at UC Riverside on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big West Conference Standings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC San Diego 3-0
UC Irvine 3-0
Cal State Northridge 3-1
UC Riverside 3-1
Cal State Bakersfield 2-2
Long Beach State 2-2
UC Davis 2-2
UC Santa Barbara 1-2
HAWAI’I 1-2<\/strong>
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-4
Cal State Fullerton 0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stealing the show from a “showtime”-type opponent, Hawai’i shot past visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday night, 68-55, in Big West Conference men’s basketball action. An appreciative crowd of 3,328 in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Gytis Nemeiksa score a game-high 19 points with nine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2240"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2264,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240\/revisions\/2264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}