One way or the other, the Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team seems to be caught up in the dramatics of the game. ADVERTISING One way or the other, the Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team seems to be caught up in
One way or the other, the Hawaii Hilo women’s basketball team seems to be caught up in the dramatics of the game.
This time, it came against Holy Names (1-15 and 1-9 in the Pacific west Conference), the last place team in the conference and a group that started its island tour here dragging eight consecutive defeats with them.
For the third game in a row, all of them victories, the Vulcans (4-8, 4-5), battled, fell, got back up, got knocked down again, got up and found a way to extract another win, thanks, at the end, to their littlest hero.
It was a 62-61 win that nudged the Vulcans into a look ahead at what a postseason playoff opportunity might hold, but it wasn’t accomplished until the final seconds.
Freshman Sharlei Graham-Bernisto, all of 5-foot-3, didn’t have numbers that jumped off the stat sheet with only two points in the game, but if you were at Afook-Chinen Auditorium on Thursday night, you realized the biggest number of the game for either team was the 2 at the far end of the box score next to her name.
The leaders for UHH were Sydney Mercer and Kim Schmelz, who each had 24 points, tops for both squads, but all those points from those two players — 77 percent of UHH’s scoring — would have been down the drain without Graham-Bernisto’s efforts at the end.
Schmelz made two free throws to give the Vulcans the 62-61 lead, but the Hawks, who outscored Hawaii Hilo 37-32 in the second half, had two opportunities to win the game in the final minute.
Taylor Krouse, with 13 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, had the ball in her hands when Graham-Bernisto, from Hilo High School, plucked the ball away. The Vulcans ran as much time as they could off the clock, but Mercer’s jumper missed, the Hawks got the ball and called timeout.
Coach David Kaneshiro was hollering out instructions as the team went back for the final 10 seconds when Graham-Bernisto ran up to him and asked her coach a question.
“You want me to pick her up down here?” she said, pointing to the backcourt where the the ball was to be inbounded.
Kaneshiro said yes.
Krouse got the ball again, went across the top of the key and Graham-Bernisto bust in again for a clean strip that won the game when it was tipped to Alexa Jacobs who held the ball until the clock ran out.
Graham-Bernisto had two steals in the game. They also happened to be the two most pivotal plays in the contest.
“I had to ask because I knew we needed something and I didn’t want our seniors to lose this game,” Graham-Bernisto said. “I didn’t know if I could steal it but I know coach has confidence in my defense and I thought I should make the effort to at least slow her down.
“(Krouse) is a good ballhandler, but I noticed she wasn’t a fast dribbler,” she said. “When she would put the ball behind her back, it was a slow motion-type thing. I thought I had a chance to steal it and I tried to time it just right because all the other players were on the opposite side of the court so I knew if I missed, she would have a clear lane to the basket, no question about it.
“I’m just glad I could contribute something,” Graham-Bernisto said.
“Those are the plays of the game,” Kaneshiro said. “I’m so proud of her and really, the whole team. She asked to pick (Krouse) up and she did it.”
After a 30-point first half, UHH played the second half as though its feet were in a mud against a strengthened Hawks’ zone that limited the Vulcans to 27 percent shooting in the third quarter (4-of-15) , and just 11 points to close the advantage to 41-39.
It didn’t get any better in the final quarter when Holy Names opened with a 12-6 edge that included 3-pointers by Krouse and Lindsay Littlejohn, whose deep ball gave the Hawks a 42-41 lead less than a minute into the quarter.
Mercer got the lead right back with two free throws, but it went back and forth the rest of the way.
The Vulcans grabbed a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter after Schmelz opened the scoring for them with a 3-pointer, followed by another and Sydney Mercer added two more long balls for UHH, which went 4-5 beyond the arc in the quarter.
They cooled off a bit in the second quarter, but Schmelz and Mercer each added another 3-pointer and six steals in the first two quarters left Hawaii Hilo with a 30-24 lead.
The Vulcans play again Saturday at Hilo Civic in a 1 p.m. game against Hawaii Pacific.
