Everything seemed to be falling into place for the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team that battled all season to get into position for a Pacific West Conference playoff berth, and then, just like that, it all seemed to fall apart Thursday night at Hilo Civic.
Everything seemed to be falling into place for the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s basketball team that battled all season to get into position for a Pacific West Conference playoff berth, and then, just like that, it all seemed to fall apart Thursday night at Hilo Civic.
The Vulcans, 9-7 in conference play before Thursday’s game against BYU-Hawaii — the team that provided Hawaii-Hilo its first victory of the season after it opened 0-7 — were one game removed from the conference’s last playoff berth until the Seasiders showed up.
BYU-Hawaii thoroughly outplayed the Vulcans in virtually all phases of the game and took a 66-47 win that ended a four-game UHH win streak and removed a bit of drama for Tuesday’s home against Point Loma Nazarene, the team the Vulcans need to catch to gain the playoffs.
Point Loma (10-6) hosts Cal Baptist (15-1) Friday night, so the chance exists that Hawaii Hilo (9-8 in conference, 9-13 overall), will be in a position to reconsider those playoff options if the Vulcans can manage a win Saturday afternoon at Hawaii Pacific.
“We tried to fight our way back into it,” said UH-Hilo coach David Kaneshiro, “but we simply didn’t play well enough. It’s tough to lose like that.”
UHH led one time in the game, 3-2 on a shot beyond the arc at the top of the key by senior Felicia Kolb, but the inside size of the Seasiders, with 6-foot-5 post Emily Nelson, presented issues for the smaller Vulcans who tried to rely on outside shooting on a night when the shots weren’t falling.
UH-Hilo made just 26.3 of its field goals, going 15-for-57, while making only five field goals in the second half out of 26 shots. Meanwhile, the Seasiders were led by two senior guards, Valerie Nawahine (25 points) and Celeste Claw (19). Between those two, BYU-Hawaii received 44 points, just three fewer than the entire Vulcans team.
“I wish we could do that all the time,” said Seasiders coach Craig Stanger, “but if you see where we are (7-10, 10-12), you can tell we haven’t had this kind of game every time out.
“We were in the playoffs last year and with the group we had coming back we sort of thought we might be there again this year,” he said, “but the fact is, we’ve been eliminated, so the only thing we can do is try to win as many as we can, try to be the best team in Hawaii and look to next year. But it was good to see them play so well.
“I think part of that goes back to (UHH) beating us at home earlier. We wanted to redeem ourselves a bit.”
Consider that accomplished.
BYU-Hawaii held double digit leads most of the first half, but the Vulcans closed it to 40-36 with 4:27 left in the third quarter after Lauren Hong hit a 3-pointer, Kim Schmelz made a free throw and Hong dropped through two more foul shots, but the long ball by Hong was deceiving in that it ended a stretch of 9:23 on the game clock without a field goal for UHH. There weren’t many more after that as the Seasiders went on a 14-0 run as Nawahine and Claw each had five in that stretch.
Turnovers undid the momentum as the Vulcans had eight at halftime, but added seven more in the third quarter alone, several of them leading to baskets at the other end.
“It helps when they miss shots like they did tonight,” said Stanger, “but we probably had something to do with that.”
The game Tuesday against Point Loma Nazarene will be Cancer Awareness Night with anyone wearing pink receiving free admission. The game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m., with the men’s game to follow.