UC San Diego vs Hawaii 1/5/23 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and the UC San Diego Tritons meet Thursday in college basketball action from LionTree Arena. Hawaii is 11-3 so far this year. The Warriors beat Cal Poly in their last game. As for UC San Diego, they’re 6-8 overall following a loss to UCSB on Saturday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Hawaii posted a 7-3 run through their first 10 games this year, falling to Yale, Texas A&M-Commerce and UNLV. The Warriors were able to keep the win streak going and they’ve beaten Washington State, SMU, UC Davis and Cal Poly in the last quartet. 

In the Cal Poly game on Saturday, the Warriors took a 27-22 lead into the second half. Hawaii logged a 30-26 run from there and won 57-48. Kamaka Hepa, Noel Coleman and JoVon McClanahan each scored a team-high 12 points. 

Over on the UC San Diego side, they were 4-6 after 10 games with wins over California, George Washington, Eastern Michigan and Bethesda. The Tritons are 2-2 in their last four with wins over Occidental and Long Beach State. 

On Saturday versus UC Santa Barbara, the Tritons were up 43-40 by halftime. UC San Diego was drilled 42-18 in the second half and lost 82-61. Emmanuel Tshimanga scored 18 points and Roddie Anderson put up 17 points with 10 assists. 

PICK: I’ll probably stay with Hawaii. The Warriors have looked great during this six-game win streak and they’re playing solid defense as well. Hawaii has given up 66 or fear points in five of the six games (70 in the other). That said, the Warriors have also scored 62 or fewer points themselves in three of the six games. As for UC San Diego, they couldn’t keep up with UCSB in their last outing, and they’ve given up a combined 165 points over their last pair. Hawaii should have plenty of opportunities to score in this one.