SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. >> The Hawaii basketball team lost its second straight game and the Rainbow Warriors’ leader, falling to last-place Cal Poly on Saturday night 88-80 in front of 2,310 fans at Mott Athletics Center.
More important than losing the game for the Warriors could be the loss of point guard Drew Buggs to injury. Buggs went to the floor while battling for a rebound with 4:50 to play in the first half. After receiving attention from athletic trainer Jayson Goo, Buggs spent the second half of the game on the end of the bench, with crutches at his side and ice on his injured left ankle.
“We’ll wait and see how Drew is. I know he’s tough,” coach Eran Ganot said. “We’re going to be smart about it and go from there.”
The loss dropped the Rainbow Warriors to 16-11 overall and 7-6 in the Big West Conference, alone in fourth place with three games to play before the Big West tournament.
Senior point guard Brocke Stepteau filled in ably for the injured Buggs on the offensive end, scoring 11 points and tallying a career-high 11 assists without a turnover. Zigmars Raimo led Hawaii with a career-high-tying 21 points to go along with seven rebounds. Dawson Carper, who scored 15 points off the bench against Cal Poly 10 days ago scored seven and pulled-down a team-high nine rebounds. Sheriff Drammeh scored 13 points off the bench.
“We’ve proven we can score,” said Stepteau.
“On certain nights we can defend. We’ve got to get better defensively. Toughness is the thing that we’re lacking, especially on the road. If we get that toughness we can contend for a championship. If we don’t, we’re just average. It’s supposed to be a staple of our program. We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board and figure it out before it’s too late.”
Despite the Buggs injury, the Rainbow Warriors led 40-38 at halftime after 12 lead changes in the first 20 minutes. Cal Poly started the second half on an 8-0 run to take a 46-40 lead that it would never relinquish.
The Mustangs were led by Donovan Fields, a senior guard who scored a game-high 28 points. Marcellus Garrick added 16 points. Cal Poly finished the game with its highest point total, most 3-pointers made (14) and highest 3-point percentage (58.3) and field-goal percentage (53.3) of the season in what was just its second conference win.
“We’ve been as bad defensively as I’ve ever seen our program,” said Ganot. “As bad on the boards. We’re just trying to out-shoot and out-take care of the ball and that’s not going to get it done. If we don’t fix that, we’re cooked.”
Ganot searched for an answer throughout the second half, switching between a 2-3 zone and man-to-man defense. Nothing seemed to shut down the Mustangs for very long as Hawaii tried to regain the lead.
A pair of free throws from Samuta Avea brought Hawaii within a point with 5:40 to play in the game, but Cal Poly’s Mark Crowe answered with a 3-pointer 10 seconds later. A Raimo layup with 2:20 to play brought Hawaii within three points, but Fields made a jumper on the following possession to push the lead back to five points.
The Mustangs are now 6-19 overall and 2-10 in Big West play, one game behind eighth-pace UC Riverside with just four games to play.
Ganot boiled down the loss and the team’s recent struggles on its winless road trip to toughness, and put the responsibility squarely on his own shoulders. Hawaii has what Ganot said is one of the most difficult schedules in the Big West down the stretch, playing three of its final four games on the road. Ganot had hoped it would help “show what his team was made of.”
“So far, we’ve shown what we’re not made of, and that’s what’s disappointing,” said Ganot. “This one starts with me. This is smack down on me for allowing our team to perform like that.”
The game was just the second loss for the Rainbow Warriors in the past nine meetings with the Mustangs.
