It all seemed pretty simple for the University of Hawaii at Hilo Saturday night at The Civic. A win would clinch the last Pacific West Conference playoff spot on the last day of the regular season for a team that has been on an uphill climb all season.
It all seemed pretty simple for the University of Hawaii at Hilo Saturday night at The Civic. A win would clinch the last Pacific West Conference playoff spot on the last day of the regular season for a team that has been on an uphill climb all season.
As it turned out, the long climb from an 0-9 start may have taken it out of the Vulcans at the end. They battled on mostly even terms for the first 25 minutes and then fell into a stretch of bad shots and turnovers that Azusa Pacific pounced on and leveraged into a 85-75 victory that ended UHH (9-11 in PWC, 9-15 overall) postseason hopes one step from the goal.
The Vulcans overcame a horrid first half in which they had trouble locating the basket against the taller Cougars (15-5, 21-7) yet managed to stay within range of tracking them down.
Parker Farris hit a long 3-pointer to make it 80-72 with 1:27 remaining after Azusa Pacific missed two free throws but after the Cougars dropped through two by Connor Peterson, Salim Gloyd banged through another triple to cut the deficit to 81-75 and Peterson then turned the ball over with 1:01 left.
Van Lockett lost the ball on the baseline through a field of hands and Peterson’s two free throws at 48 seconds got the lead back to eight and Bruce English made two more for a 10-point lead and it was over.
The Vulcans were able to stay close throughout the first half despite making only eight field goals and three of those came in the last four minutes. They finished 8-for-28, just 28 percent shooting while Azusa Pacific connected on 44 percent of its shots (15-for-34).
Gloyd had 12 points at the half, which included 5-for-6 from the foul line, but 10 Hilo turnovers made it tough to catch up. Without the 14-for-16 that UHH made from the foul line, the Vulcans wouldn’t have been close, even though they out rebounded the bigger Cougars 21-20 in the first 20 minutes.
Hawaii Hilo jumped to an 11-6 start in the second half, led by a 3-point basket from Parker Farris and three free throws when he was fouled shooting a three, and then senior guard Jordan Russell swished through another 3 to close a 10-point halftime lead to 49-44.
At that point, Azusa Pacific reasserted control with a 18-1 spurt fueled by three 3-pointers from three different players that increased the advantage to 67-45 and put the game out of reach.
A victory would have provided the Vulcans with their first PWC playoff berth in the fourth year of existence of the conference tournament.
Mark that down at the top of the list of priorities for the Vulcans next year, after a 2015-16 season fraught with injuries and the preseason of their key returning player who signed a professional contract.
With a lineup that changed almost game-by-game in the 0-9 start, the Vulcans finally got on track to make a serious run at the tournament but at the end, there was not enough left to complete the climb to the mountaintop.