Hawai’i dismantled by UC San Diego in ugly loss

Over before it truly began. 

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team sputtered to the finish line on Saturday evening, getting blitzed early and never recovering against UC San Diego (24-4, 14-2 Big West) in an 83-44 throttling in La Jolla, Calif., seeing Big West Conference Player of the Year contender Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones go for a game-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field for the Tritons. The 39-point loss marked the largest final margin of defeat against a conference opponent for the Rainbow Warriors since joining the Big West. 

Tyler McGhie followed closely behind Tait-Jones for UC San Diego, pouring in 17 points and drilling three of the Tritons’ 13 total makes from 3-point range. The victory marked the ninth straight for UC San Diego, who holds a one-game advantage over UC Irvine for the top spot in the Big West standings with two weeks of games remaining before the tournament. 

Hawai’i’s standing ahead of the conference tournament is on much shakier ground after suffering the team’s seventh loss in the last 10 games. The Rainbow Warriors (14-13, 6-10 Big West) failed to finish with a double-digit scorer, seeing Ryan Rapp’s nine-point night lead the way for the visitors on a night that the team shot a season-worst 26.8% from the field. 

The only lead of the night Hawai’i would hold two and a half minutes into the action after Tanner Christensen rolled a layup in over the front of the rim to give the Rainbow Warriors a 5-4 advantage. UC San Diego would rattle off the next 12 points before Gytis Nemeikša snapped the scoring drought with a made free throw before his second shot was waved off due to a lane violation. 

Another 12-1 run from the Tritons put the hosts firmly in the drivers’ seat as Hawai’i struggled through a near-nine-minute field goal drought. Akira Jacobs finally ended the dry spell from the floor as he connected from 3-point range with 8:45 left before halftime to pull the Rainbow Warriors back within 20. 

A layup from Ryan Rapp made it a 14-point deficit for Hawai’i with 5:15 remaining in the first half, but that would be the closest that the Rainbow Warriors would get for the rest of the night as they failed to score again before heading into the locker rooms trailing UC San Diego, 42-17. The first half was not kind in any way to UH, seeing the visitors shoot 18.8% from the field (6-for-32 FG) while UCSD drained 9-of-13 from behind the 3-point arc alone. 

The second half did not treat Hawai’i much better, seeing the Rainbow Warriors fall down by as many as 40 points as UC San Diego bludgeoned UH until the final horn with nine of the team’s 11 players that saw time recording at least one bucket. Hawai’i shot a slightly more respectable 37.5% from the floor after halftime but turned the ball over six times in the final 20 minutes and got beaten on the glass again. 

Harry Rouhliadeff finished with eight points and six rebounds for the Rainbow Warriors while freshman guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor ended the day with seven points, three rebounds and a trio of assists in the loss. Hawai’i returns home next week for the final two home games of the season, hosting UC Riverside on Thursday evening before celebrating this year’s senior class on Saturday, March 1 after the Rainbow Warriors’ last home contest of 2025 against UC Davis.