SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. >> Before Saturday night’s game at Cal Poly, there were a lot of things the Hawaii men’s basketball team hadn’t done before.

The Rainbow Warriors hadn’t lost three in a row. They’d only just lost back-to-back games for the first time all season three days before.

They hadn’t lost to the Mustangs in five tries under head coach Eran Ganot — six games going back to the previous regime — and had taken three in a row at Mott Athletics Center.

Hawaii hadn’t given up 11 3-pointers this season or been outrebounded by 15 or more. The Warriors came into the game second in the Big West Conference in 3-point percentage defense and were the top defensive rebounding team to boot.

But that all turned in a 78-64 loss to the Mustangs, where a disastrous second half saw Cal Poly ride some hot shooting to pick up just its third Big West win of the season.

Now, in the midst of all this change, Hawaii (13-8, 4-4 Big West) needs to find some familiarity to pull out of a sudden tailspin.

“It’s always fundamentals,” Ganot said. “It’s always the basics. There are no gimmicks. We’ve got to do things right over and over again. We’ve got great kids, I think that’s why we’ve bounced back and why we will.

“You get rightfully exposed for things in life, and rightfully, if you choose, you can respond. Life’s tough. This game’s humbling. I say it all the time. It’s always how you handle it.”

Though humbled in a double-digit loss, things didn’t start out so bad for the Warriors on Saturday. They never trailed Cal Poly (8-15, 3-6) in the first half, were only tied with the Mustangs once after the opening tip and entered the break with a 35-28 lead.

They’d also helped force 12 first-half Mustangs turnovers out of a team that averages just more than 11 per game. At the same time, Sheriff Drammeh poured in 14 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, including a 4-for-4 start from 3-point range.

Then Cal Poly opened the second half with a Luke Meikle 3-pointer that sparked a 16-2 run. It was one of those 11 3-pointers by the Mustangs. Meikle had two of them. Jakub Niziol had four, including two during the decisive 13-0 run that ended with 5:32 left and put Cal Poly up by 10.

The Mustangs, who’ve shot 80 more 3s than anyone in the conference and shoot the second-best percentage as well, stretched out the Hawaii defense exactly according to plan.

“It just starts with the point of attack,” Warriors guard Drew Buggs said. “You’ve got to take care of the ball first. It makes rotations a lot harder and gives guys open looks.”

Not to mention, before that initial Cal Poly run could even get going, Warriors forward Mike Thomas was sent to the bench with his third foul just 1:06 into the half. This after Thomas played only 10 minutes in the first half.

Even Thomas’s own eye betrayed him in the second half when a contact lens flopped out, and he was unable to get it back in during the allotted 20 seconds. Back to the bench he went.

Considering he’d scored double figures in eight of the past nine games, including five 20-point performances and three double-doubles, it was a considerable blow.

While he did total seven points and six rebounds, and Gibson Johnson grabbed a team-high seven to go with eight points, Cal Poly dominated on the boards 41-24. It was the worst rebounding deficit of the season for Hawaii, which was outrebounded by 14 in an 80-60 loss at Utah on Dec. 2.

Much of that had to do with Cal Poly just not missing all that much. The Mustangs shot 48.1 percent from the field overall, and including a 17-for-18 effort from the free-throw line, there weren’t a whole lot of defensive rebounds to be had.

To his credit, Jack Purchase was 4-for-8 on 3s and helped keep Hawaii in the game with 12 points. Buggs added 10 and five assists.

It just wasn’t nearly enough to counter Cal Poly, which had four players in double figures, including Meikle and Niziol with 12 apiece, Donovan Fields with 15 and Victor Joseph with 12 points and five assists.

Now the Warriors return home to face last-place UC Riverside (5-17, 0-8) on Wednesday. There’s no better matchup for a team trying to right its course. Until that happens, though, Ganot is intent on using the adversity of this current stretch as fuel for the regular season’s remaining eight games.

“You can’t just enjoy the ups, and right now we’re going through adversity,” Ganot said. “It can be a great thing if you handle it right. It’s something good teams can use to draw closer.”