SAN DIEGO, Calif. — UH-Hilo’s mens basketball team avenged last year’s playoff loss to Biola, defeating the No. 4-seeded Eagles 84-72 in the first round of the Pacific West Conference tournament on Thursday afternoon at Point Loma Nazarene University.
The Vulcans will next face home standing No. 1 seed Point Loma at 12:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m. PT) today in the final four round. In the other semifinal matchup, No. 2 Academy of Art will play against No. 6 Azusa Pacific — which beat No. 3 Hawaii Pacific 56-55 earlier in the day Thursday.
Things took an early and unexpected turn for the worse for UH-Hilo when leading scorer Carlos Ramsey Jr. was injured during warmups.
With their postseason on the line, the Vulcans came out hot and broke away early — eventually going on an 11-0 scoring run that lifted UHH to a 25-13 lead. During that run, Nadjrick Peat put up his first dunk of three on the outing.
The Vulcan’s lead grew even more leading up to halftime, as UHH went on an 8-0 run during the final two minutes and coasted into halftime with a cozy, 39-18 lead.
UH-Hilo held Biola to a mere 7-31 success rate shooting from the field during the first half.
Charles Elzie III came off the bench to lead the Vulcans through the first period with 14 points and three assists.
Kalique Mitchell scored 12 points and notched an additional four assists for UHH before halftime.
Biola outscored UH-Hilo 54-45 in the second period, and was never able to shrink its lead back to a single digit.
Peat notched a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds — as well as three blocks and a steal — and was one of four Vulcans to score double-digit points.
Mitchell led the way with a season high 23 points and seven assists, plus nine rebounds. Close behind was Elzie III with 21 points, three assists, two steals and two rebounds. Jake Kosakowski scored fourteen points, going four-for-five from outside the arc and also notching two assists and three rebounds.
All in all, UH-Hilo shot 16-25 (64%) from the free throw line, 30-56 (53.6%) from the field and 8-16 from downtown.
Though the Eagles were excellent at free throws — going 15-19 (78.9%) — they shot a dismal 25-67 (37.3%) from the field and 7-25 (28%) from the three. Tyus Parrish-Tillman led Biola with a season-high 24 points and ten rebounds.
UH-Hilo is now 19-11 overall and 12-8 in conference play, while Biola wraps its season up at 17-12 overall and also 12-8 in the PacWest.
The Vulcans will now undertake the task of playing the top seed on its home court. UHH and PLNU (20-8 ovr., 15-5 conf.) went 1-1 against each other this season in a pair of tight matchups. The Sea Lions defeated UH-Hilo 74-71 in SoCal on Jan. 6, then the Vulcans bested Point Loma 75-71 in overtime two weeks later in Hilo.