One that was close enough to put their hands on slipped away from the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Tuesday night at Hilo Civic where two-time defending Pacific West Conference champion Azusa Pacific reached down and found a way
One that was close enough to put their hands on slipped away from the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Tuesday night at Hilo Civic where two-time defending Pacific West Conference champion Azusa Pacific reached down and found a way to pull out a hard-fought 81-77 victory.
It was the fourth win in a row for the Cougars (8-7, 3-2 in PWC), on their first stop of a three-game trip through the islands, while it dropped the Vulcans to 5-7 and 3-3.
“We can’t lose home games,” said UHH point guard Ryley Callaghan, “but we found out we measure up against the best in this conference, so it’s a matter of win or learn, not win or lose for us. We need to look at the film of this and we’ll see all kind of places we could have come out of this different.
“We had a bad first half, but now, we need to learn and be ready for (Concordia) Saturday.”
The first half was tight and the only real edge for the Cougars came from beyond the 3-point line where AP was 5-for-12 and the Vulcans 3-for-14, including a 1-for-5 effort from the team’s leading scorer and top 3-point shooter, Parker Farris.
Ryan Reyes came off the bench and displayed his long ball touch making two of his four attempts, but at the break, UHH was down six and looking for someone to provide a lift.
The Vulcans finally got an offensive spark a few minutes into the second half when Farris, who finished with a team-high 19 points, knocked down a deep jumper with 14:38 left to tie the game at 41, then his next long range bulls-eye gave them a 47-46 lead 12:21 remaining.
Brian Ishola, who finished with his fifth double-double after scoring 14 points and grabbing a dozen rebounds, made two free throws, then Farris took over for a spell with a midrange jumper followed by another deep ball that made it 54-46. The Cougars retaliated with a basket and two free throws to narrow it to 54-50.
Farris was part of a surprise at that juncture when he drove into traffic, flipped a pass to Arnold Silva off the bench and Silva took a stroll down the baseline and scored on a reverse layup that brought the bench to its feet and ignited a roar from the crowd with the 56-50 lead.
Azusa Pacific stayed close and went ahead 63-62 on two free throws from Austin Dyer, then Will Ferris hit a deep ball for a 66-62 lead at 3:26.
The Vulcans got back to a point away at 78-77 on another Silva basket, but an AP free throw made it 79-77 with 16.8 seconds left. As the Vulcans came down the floor, coach GE Coleman yelled from the bench, “End it, Parker, end it.”
Farris got the message but he was heavily guarded and his dispiriting shot was partially blocked and that was the game.
“Hilo is a much, much better team,” said Azusa Pacific coach Justin Leslie. “They’re hard to guard because they have people who can score from all over the floor and they play really hard. GE has something going here, and I’m just glad to get out. I feel really proud of my kids for hanging in there.”
The Vulcans are back at Hilo Civic on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game against Concordia.
