For a while there, the improbable task seemed possible once again for the Hawaii Hilo women’s team, but unlike the three previous games, all victories secured in the final seconds, the hill was too high to climb Saturday afternoon at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
For a while there, the improbable task seemed possible once again for the Hawaii Hilo women’s team, but unlike the three previous games, all victories secured in the final seconds, the hill was too high to climb Saturday afternoon at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
Hawaii Pacific (12-3, 9-1 in the Pacific West Conference), won its sixth consecutive game and the 12th of its last 13 when it overcame a shaky second quarter and a brief deficit in the third quarter to turn away the Vulcans (4-9, 4-6) 56-47.
“They kept coming at us,” said Hawaii pacific coach Reid Takatsuka, “they’re fighters, man, I give them a lot of credit.”
UHH started the game going in the wrong direction. It missed its first first six free throws, started 1-for-9 from the floor and when Asia Smith followed a miss by Alexa Jacobs for a basket with 1:11 left in the first quarter, the Vulcans were just 2-for-11, and had gone 5:51 without a field goal, without a point of any kind.
“We’ve done this before,” said Takatsuka, “we will have a good quarter and then get a little complacent and sometimes it can be an issue. They got all after us and we were able to put things back together in time.”
The Vulcans were able to climb back within a reasonable distance by halftime when they outscored the Sharks 11-7 in the second quarter to close the deficit to 25-17 at the half when HPU closed the quarter by going 3-for-16 from the floor.
The Sharks built the lead to 18 at 24-6 before UHH began chipping away at the lead. Five quick points by Vanessa Mancera in the second quarter shaved the advantage down to 29-24 and another 3-pointer by Mancera kept the Sharks from pulling away at 34-29.
It was Lauren Hong’s turn in the fourth quarter, back for her second game following a concussion. She made a basket to the Vulcans to a 35-33 deficit and then she knocked down a 3-pointer ion the next possession to put UHH up, 36-35 but it turned out to be the first and last lead of the game for the home team.
“We showed some heart in the second half,” said Vulcans coach David Kaneshiro. “We challenged them a little and they got up and came back like they always have.
“We played hare enough today,” he said, “We didn’t play well enough.”
The Vulcans were unable to help themselves at the foul line where they made just 14 of 24 attempts. They lost the rebound battle 48-43, but Smith was vital under the glass with 13 rebounds, leading the team.
Mancera led the team in scoring with 13, Hawaii Pacific’s Jessi Reeves was high scorer in the game with 15.
The Vulcans are off all week with their next game in Utah against Dixie State Saturday when they start the second half of the season with four consecutive road games.