It wasn’t a matter of too late, but on Senior Night for Hawaii Hilo, the Vulcans were clearly too little.
And now, it is too late, even for a miracle.
Overmatched in size and depth, the Vulcans couldn’t contain the hard charging offensive approach of Dixie State University Thursday night in a 98-65 defeat that ended any miracle hopes UHH may have had to gain a playoff berth in the Pacific West Conference tournament.
The last home game of the season was Hawaii Hilo’s most lopsided defeat of the season, topping the 26-point loss (104-78) at Hawaii Pacific earlier in the schedule.
“They’re the class of the Pac West, hopefully one day we can be like that,” said UH coach GE Coleman. “They were big, they were more physical than us, they pounded the boards and we could not compete at that level.
“When we get beat like that on the boards and commit that many turnovers, we can’t compete with a team like that.”
Dixie State beat UHH 45-24 in rebounds and the Vulcans had 18 turnovers against only 12 assists.
The Vulcans, 8-15 this season and 6-11 in the PWC had harbored some visions of a magical run to gain a playoff spot after falling one game short a year ago, but that appears to be up in smoke after the loss in their final home game of the season.
Dixie State nudged its record to 14-3 in conference play and 17-6 for the season, with an apparent stranglehold on one of the six conference playoff berths and an outside shot at winning the regular season championship, trailing Hawaii Pacific and California Baptist by just one game in the loss column prior to Thursday’s games.
The Trailblazers had six players in double figures and were yet another team to shoot more than 50 percent from the field this season, the ninth time the Vulcans have allowed that kind of shooting performance. UHH has been at or above 50 percent in field goal shooting ton three occasions this season.
Kyler Nielson led Dixie State with 18 points, Marcus Bradley had 16.
In his final home game, Parker Farris led the Vulcans with 19 points, Brian Ishola had another double-double in the losing effort with 13 points and 12 rebounds, the latter a high for the game for both squads. Rwandan Berinobis also had 13 for the Vulcans.
Farris was recognized before the start of the game with a framed photograph of him in a game against Seattle Pacific, while being draped with a lei for pictures with his family and coaches.
As soon as the game started, it was Hill, just two minutes behind Farris for the most minutes played in the conference this season, who came out guarding the Vulcans leading scorer. For a brief time they guarded each other but after the first five minutes player rotations were such that those two were rarely on each other.
Dixie State ran out fast but UHH managed to stay 10 points back most of the way and closed it to 42-35 when Berinobis scored on a dunk off a long pass from Farris and then converted the free throw. It was as close as they got the rest of the game.
By halftime, the Vulcans couldn’t slow down the pace set by the Trailblazers and trailed 47-37 after Dixie State shot 56 percent on 18 of 32 field goal attempts, including 5 of their 10 3-pointers.
Hawaii Hilo was held to 36 percent shooting and was able to stay as close as 10 points down thanks to making 10 of 12 free throws.
Hill was on fire for the Trailblazers, knocking down 5 of 6 attempts, including a 3-pointer for 13 points at the intermission, one more than Farris had for the Vulcans.
The Vulcans close out the season at Holy Names Tuesday than play at Academy of Art and Dominican.
