Randan Berinobis had a blast on the boards, and his energy finally spread as UH-Hilo diffused what could have been a sticky situation. ADVERTISING Randan Berinobis had a blast on the boards, and his energy finally spread as UH-Hilo diffused
Randan Berinobis had a blast on the boards, and his energy finally spread as UH-Hilo diffused what could have been a sticky situation.
Randan Berinobis had a blast on the boards, and his energy finally spread as UH-Hilo diffused what could have been a sticky situation.
Actually, it would have been a disaster, but any thoughts of an embarrassing loss were put aside Thursday night as the Vulcans used a second-half onslaught to surge past undersized Northwest Indian College 106-75 at Hilo Civic for their fourth victory in five games.
Berinobis was a one-man rebounding machine, with nine on the offensive end en route to grabbing a career-high 24 – that surpassed the Eagles’ team total – Parker Farris scored 27 points and the Vulcans (5-6) shot 61.5 percent after the break, turning a nail-biter into a laugher and reaching triple digits for the first time this season.
“Randan provided the energy we needed, he woke us up,” coach GE Coleman said. “We came out flat. We can’t sleep walk against anyone, we have little margin for error. We have to play harder than anyone else and we have to play the right way. The second half was more like we need to play.”
UH-Hilo’s sleepwalk aside, the Eagles (0-22) were pesky on the Vulcans’ home court for the second time in three seasons, despite getting obliterated on the boards (60-22).
Leading by two at the break, the Vulcans first attempt at pulling away failed, with Jacob Roberts’ jumper tying the game at 49-49.
UH-Hilo responded by ripping off 39 points in the next nine-plus minutes. Brian Ishola scored seven straight points, Eric Wattree III nailed a 3-pointer and Farris capped a 24-4 run with layup, his 10th point during the span.
UH-Hilo had a 16-4 turnover-to-assist ratio in the second half. Ishola finished with 22 points on and 11 rebounds, Arnold Silva scored all of his 14 in the second half, Wattree III added 11 and Ryan Reyes went for 10 points and five assists.
Mike Schjang scored 23 points for the Eagles.
