Looking past the ultimate goal of winning every game, every time, no matter who or where you play, the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team has found some things to build on this season after losing eight seniors
Looking past the ultimate goal of winning every game, every time, no matter who or where you play, the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team has found some things to build on this season after losing eight seniors a year ago.
The Vulcans (7-7 in the Pacific West Conference, 7-12 overall), will try to continue the construction project Saturday at Hilo Civic when they host Chaminade 5-11, 5-15) in an 11 a.m. game, followed by the men’s game. UH-Hilo is playing its first home game since a 3-1 romp through the Northern California portion of the Pac-West, showing again that it can be a good road team for coach David Kaneshiro. The Vulcans were 5-5 on the road last year, 4-7 at home.
After a slow start with a nearly new roster of players, UHH has won five of its last eight, moving up the conference standings to seventh place, but it’s a big gap from there to the final playoff spot, currently held by sixth place Hawaii Pacific (11-5, 14-9). With only six games left, it would be theoretically possible, but realistically unlikely for the Vulcans to get into the playoffs without winning all six of their remaining games.
“It’s all them,” Kaneshiro said Friday, “they’ve done a good jobs in all aspects this season. Everybody knows how we started out (2-9), but despite that and all the change that comes with such a roster turnover, they have never given in.
“In the back of our minds we all probably think there’s a (playoff) chance at the end, depending on how we do, but we have never discussed anything like that,” he said. “That probably has a lot to do with their improvement, it’s been day-by-day, one practice at a time — try to make it our best one so far — and when the game comes around, try to play our best game of the season.”
The game is a homecoming for a pair of Silverswords juniors, Courtney Kaupu (Konawaena graduate) and Bobbi Monitbon (Kamehameha). Kaupu has started all 20 games this season and is second on the team in scoring, averaging 9.7 per game. Monitbon has played in 12 games.
Season ender: The Vulcans’ men’s team took a hard hit before the season ever began when Tre Johnson, a rising senior expected throughout the conference to be in the mix for most valuable player of the season honors, agreed to a professional contract and left school to pursue that career.
Coach GE Coleman held out hope that his next big body to defend the rim and play inside, 6-foot-6 junior Darius Johnson-Wilson, would recover from a knee problem soon enough to supply much-needed help for his physically overmatched teammates. Instead, after a procedure on his meniscus, Johnson-Wilson was unable to practice without having the knee swell up, so the decision was made to redshirt the season and come back next year healthy and motivated.
“Not good news for now,” Coleman said, “but it’s the best thing for him and knowing we will have him all season is a pretty good feeling.”
But as the Vulcans (5-10, 5-14) take the court Saturday against Chaminade (8-8, 10-13), they do so with a much different frame of reference than when they left for their four-game swing through Northern California. Rejuvenated by a successful home stand, the UH Hilo men set off on the trip believing they could sweep the four games and get in line for a playoff spot.
Instead, after an opening game two-point loss at Notre Dame de Namur and a win at Dominican, they fell in a 106-96 racehorse at Fresno Pacific and then closed it out with an 80-78 defeat at Holy Names.
No playoffs this year.
“It’s been a rough time with the injuries, departures and all the rest,” Coleman said, “but this is a great group to work with and they will battle until the end, these guys won’t quit playing hard.”
Chaminade leads the Pac West in scoring, averaging 90.7 points per game, led by Roundel Goodman’s 16.7 ppg.
