KAILUA KONA, Hawaii ? The UC San Diego men's basketball team concluded its season-opening 9-game road trip with a narrow 69-62 loss to Hawaii Hilo on the final day of the Coconut Coast Classic on the Big Island of Hawaii. The loss drops UCSD to 2-7 on the year while UHH improves to 7-3.

The game was tied at 32 apiece after the first 20 minutes and was still tied, at 49-49, after the first 12 minutes of the second half. The Vulcans, however, went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to grab a lead it would not relinquish.

Freshmen Henry Patterson and Darryl Lawlor scored 14 points each to lead the Tritons while junior Robby Peters added 12.

Joe Thomas and Justin Griffin each scored a game-high 19 points to lead the UHH offense. Travis also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.

Neither team was careless with the ball as there were only 17 total turnovers on the afternoon, 10 of which were committed by the Vulcans. The big difference came at the charity stripe where UHH made 24-of-30 on the night while UCSD made only 11 of their 18 attempts.

The Tritons return to action on Tuesday, January 3, hosting Grand Canyon University at 4 p.m. in RIMAC Arena. The game marks the first home game of the season for UCSD who will also play two CCAA contests at home that weekend, hosting Cal State Stanislaus on Friday night, January 6, before welcoming in Chico State on Saturday, January 7. Both of those league match-ups are slated for 7:30 p.m. starts.