By BILL O’REAR Tribune-Herald sports editor ADVERTISING Junior Terrell Mack came off the bench to score 16 points and Dirk Snel added 10 to lead the University of Hawaii at Hilo to a 69-62 win over Academy of Art University
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Junior Terrell Mack came off the bench to score 16 points and Dirk Snel added 10 to lead the University of Hawaii at Hilo to a 69-62 win over Academy of Art University on Monday night.
The Pacific West Conference men’s basketball game was played before about 350 fans at the UHH Gym.
The Vulcans improved to 7-4 overall and 1-3 in conference while the Urban Knights, from San Francisco, dipped to 2-12 and 0-4, respectively.
But it was a game of two halves, with the Vulcans outscoring the Urban Knights 36-20 in the first 20 minutes before the visitors outpointed the hosts 42-33 in a sloppy second half.
AAU outscored UHH 11-2 to start the final 20 minutes and make it a close encounter. Vulcan coach Jeff Law then pulled his starters with 15:25 remaining, with the hosts holding a 38-33 advantage and the now confident Urban Knights clearly bearhugging momentum.
“I’m proud of the way we played in the first half,” Law said. “But in the second half, we came out with no intensity and let them back into the game. That’s why I went to the second unit, to mix it up and try to pick up the intensity.
“The second unit played hard. They made some mistakes, but they played with more intensity and gave us a chance. We’ve still got some issues to resolve. Hopefully we can learn from this and keep progressing.”
The move with the hustling second unit paid dividends while the Urban Knights continued to fight back. They closed to within 40-37 on Ameer Shamssud-din’s layup at the 14:46 mark. However, the 6-foot-6 Mack, who didn’t start because he came late to the game, started to take over offensively and Law’s reinforcements eventually built a 53-43 advantage.
Mack, a junior transfer from Saddleback College in Southern California, highlighted a Vulcan point spree with seven points to help build that 10-point lead. But turnovers and shaky shot selection hurt the hosts down the stretch, allowing the gritty Urban Knights to pull within 57-55 on a Czar Robotham’s free throw with 4:41 left.
Junior Kiel Myers answered for UHH, drilling 3 of 4 free throws to stretch cushion to 60-55 and Mack’s eight-foot jumper made it 62-55 at 2:40.
AAU then fouled, trying to get the ball back in the final 2:08. But the steady Myers, Mack and Snell each sank two free throws and junior point guard CJ Brown added one as the Vulcans outpointed the visitors 7-2 the rest of the way.
Snel, a 6-2 senior, sparked UHH with a pair of long-range 3-pointers and hit both free throws for his 10 points. Myers and junior Mychael Hearn each had eight points, Brown seven and junior Michael Melonas six in a balanced but low-scoring attack.
Shamssud-din, a 6-2 junior, led the Urban Knights with 19 points. William Overton Jr. had 14 and Noah Kone-Nelson and Robotham had 12 points apiece.
UHH shot 47 percent (22 of 47) from the floor, 33 percent (4 of 12) from 3-point range and 72 percent (21 of 29) from the free-throw line. AAU hit 45 percent (23 of 51) from the field, 33 percent (4 of 12) on treys and 57 percent (12 of 21) on free throws.
The Vulcans also had 31 rebounds, 10 assists, 20 turnovers, 1 blocked shot and 9 steals compared to the visitors’ 32, 11, 21, 1 and 4, respectively.
Swords on deck
The UHH men’s and women’s teams will host Chaminade University at 5 and 7:30 p.m., respectively, Saturday at UHH Gym. The Vulcans then hit the road for PacWest games at Grand Canyon (Jan. 19), Cal Baptist (Jan. 21) and Dixie State (Jan. 24), before returning home to host Cal Baptist on Jan. 28 to start a five-game conference stand in Hilo.
AAU 20 42 — 62
UHH 36 33 — 69
Women
AAU 58
UHH 46
Senior Devin London and junior Ariel Dale each scored 13 points to lead the physical Urban Knights (6-6 overall, 2-2 PacWest).
Senior Hillary Hurley scored 18 points to lead the cold-shooting Vulcans (5-6, 3-1).
The Vulcans led 23-22 at the intermission before AAU used its size and rugged rebounding to outscore the hosts 36-23 in the second half and pull out the win.
The Urban Knights outrebounded UHH 46-30 and overcame 27 turnovers to hand the hosts their first conference loss. The Vulcans had 24 turnovers and shot only 32 percent (16 of 50) from the field, including 21 percent (3 of 14) on 3-pointers.
AAU hit 37 percent (22 of 59) from the floor, 24 percent (4 of 17) on treys and 77 percent (10 of 13) from the free-throw line. UHH sank 11 of 15 free throws, for 73 percent.
The Urban Knights also had 12 assists, a blocked shot and 12 steals compared to the Vuls’ 10, 1 and 19, respectively.
UHH made a run late in the contest, but poor passing and the inability to finish inside cost it.
Cal Baptist (12-1 overall) leads the conference with a 4-0 record.
AAU 22 36 — 58
UHH 23 23 — 46
