The Cal Poly Mustangs and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors meet Thursday in college basketball action from Stan Sheriff Center. Cal Poly is 5-19 on the year so far. The Mustangs lost to CSU Bakersfield in their last game. As for Hawaii, they’re sitting at 13-9 and fresh off a loss to UC Irvine. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Cal Poly has struggled with consistency all year and has yet to win consecutive games. The Mustangs are currently on a seven-game losing streak. They’ve fallen to UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and CSU Bakersfield in their last trio.
On Tuesday versus CSU Bakersfield, the Mustangs were down 22-30 by halftime. Cal Poly hit a 38-31 run in the second but couldn’t come back in a 61-60 loss. Top scorer Trevon Taylor posted 14 points, and Alimamy Koroma added 10 points with five boards.
Over on the Hawaii side, they went just 4-5 over their first nine games but then hit a seven-game win streak in January. After three more losses and victories over CSU Fullerton and UCSD, the Warriors lost to UC Irvine in their last game.
Matched up against UC Irvine on Saturday, the Warriors coughed up a 23-32 deficit at the break. Hawaii was drilled 29-45 in the second during a 77-52 blowout loss. Mate Colina was the only double-digit scorer on 12 points with one rebound.
Hawaii is 3-7-1 ATS in their last 11 after a straight-up loss and 5-2 ATS in the last seven as a favorite. The under is 13-3 in the Warriors’ last 16 overall.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs are 2-6 ATS in their last eight road games and 0-5 ATS in their last five after an ATS win. The over is 4-1 in Cal Poly’s last five overall.
PICK: I’m going to stick with Hawaii here. The Warriors have had some difficulties over this 2-4 run, but generally they’ve been competitive outside of the UC Irvine game. Cal Poly is in something of the same boat; they’ve lost three of the last four games by five points or fewer.
These teams last met up back on January 20 in a 63-59 road win for Hawaii. The Warriors are going to need to get their offense going early here, but I think they’ll be fine on an eventual cover.