The UH-Hilo basketball team gets a well-deserved day off Monday after playing five games over five days, traveling back and forth to battle Simpson twice.
The Vulcans beat the Red Hawks, an NAIA school from California, 87-71 on Sunday before 394 fans at Hilo Civic, where Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and Darren Williams carried the Vulcans with 26 and 24 points, respectively.
“It was a tough one. Obviously there was some fatigue in our guys,” UHH coach Kaniela Aiona said. “I’m glad we get a chance to regroup, recover on Monday. We need it so we can be ready to go for Anchorage on Tuesday. But hat’s off to Simpson, a well-coached team. They play hard. They compete. I’m glad we could pull away at the end. We showed some maturity there. I like the steps forward our team was able to take tonight.”
UHH outshot the Red Hawks (46% to 35%), outrebounded them (45-35) and had more points in the paint (40-26).
Donald McHenry shot 4 of 8 from the field and added 14 points for the Vulcans (3-0), who led 32-23 at halftime.
Anthony Rice scored 19 points, Aaron Knauss and Gary Mims each added 13 points for the Red Hawks (0-2), who got within six points when Morgan Cox hit a bank shot off the glass cut UHH’s lead to 53-47 with under 12 minutes left.
On Friday, in UHH’s 89-72 win, Rice scored 24 points and Mims had 18. Rice converted just 5 of 14 from the floor but sank 8 of 10 free throws on Sunday.
“We really didn’t stop Rice. He got to the free throw line at will,” Aiona said. “We’ve got to be better at guarding the drive and transition defense. But that’s what a team like Simpson can do. They’re aggressive, play hard, and able to get to the rim against us. We got just enough offense at the right time. It was a six-point game several times in the second half. If they hit a couple of shots, then you’ve got a whole different ballgame. But we had poise to make a run when we needed it.”
But after the Red Hawks got close, Ethan Jetter answered with a bucket, and later Williams hit one free throw, and McHenry followed with a layup for a 60-51 lead with under nine minutes remaining.
All 13 players played for the Vulcans, who went with a small lineup 6-foot-7 Tait-Jones and 6-6 Jamie Strong at forward, 5-8 Williams, 6-7 Jetter, and 6-1 McHenry at guard.
“Niwa and Darren were really efficient. Four turnovers between the two of them,” Aiona said. “Four steals, that was Darren. Niwa shooting 9 of 16, 24 points in 22 minutes. That’s efficiency. Darren was 9 of 10 on free throws, played under duress but stayed poised in steering the ship for us.”
The Vuls matched up with the Red Hawks who started five guards, and Tait-Jones had a strong day with nine rebounds. Williams was too fast for the defense and went 7 of 9 from the field, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range.
UHH jumped on a 9-0 run to grab a 72-56 lead with under six minutes to go. Williams and Tait-Jones made consecutive layups, Kameron Ng drilled a 3-pointer, and Tait-Jones capped the run with another layup.
With under five minutes left, Simpson played foul ball and it quickly backfired as the Vuls sank 14 of 14 from the free throw line. They shot 25 of 29 from the line; the Red Hawks went 20 of 27 from the free throw line.
The Vulcans next host Alaska Anchorage (1-1) at 7 p.m Tuesday at Hilo Civic.
The Seawolves were picked to finish second in the preseason GNAC poll, behind defending champion Seattle Pacific.
“They’re going to be tough, another well-coached team,” Aiona said. “Coach Rusty Osborne has been around a long time and has had some great teams. They’re a well-respected program in the West Region, and we’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ to get the results we want in that one.”
