Successful new years in college athletics always start with an urgent challenge in early January when conference schedules open up again and the well-prepared teams are soon separated from those on a holiday vacation.
Successful new years in college athletics always start with an urgent challenge in early January when conference schedules open up again and the well-prepared teams are soon separated from those on a holiday vacation.
The point comes to life Tuesday at Hilo Civic when the University of Hawaii at Hilo hosts Azusa Pacific in a pair of games that feel more significant than just another game for the men’s and women’s teams.
Both teams will be facing the defending Pacific West Conference champions, the Cougars men being awarded the regular season championship in a tiebreaker with four teams tied for first, while the Cougars’ women were declared co-champions after finishing tied with California Baptist with identical 19-1 records.
“This is a big game,” said UHH men’s coach GE Coleman, “because we have a talented team with a championship background playing as well as it has all season and we have them at home.
“It will take our best effort of the season to get this done,” he said, and if he’s lucky, maybe Coleman will find out that best efforts are contagious. Junior Randan Berinobis is coming off a school and conference-record 24 rebounds last week against Northwest Indian College, a winless program from northwestern Washington state that couldn’t keep him off the boards.
Berinobis was named the PWC defender of the week after surpassing the conference’s previous record 22 rebounds by Chaminade’s Kuany Kuany in 2014. It was also the highest single-game total in Division II this season.
“When Randan rebounds, it ignites his game,” Coleman said, “he defends better, does everything better when he hits the boards.”
Berinobis ranks seventh in the PWC in rebounding, averaging 7.1 per game, but his teammate Brian Ishola is third, averaging 8.3, just behind Azusa’s Petar Kutlesic, averaging 8.6
If Berinobis and Ishola, also a junior, can generate a consistent Bang Brothers board assault, it can only help, especially against a team like the Cougars and the 6-foot-9 Kutlesic who has been playing like an MVP of late.
Kutlesic was named the PWC player of the week in mid-December and is coming off recent back-to-back 30 points games against Western Oregon (34) and Dixie State (31). In his last game he had 15 points and 9 boards in a rout over Holy Names.
It might take two to contain him and the Vulcans might have a willing pair.
The UHH women begin the evening’s competition with a 5 p.m. tipoff against the Cougars, who ended their season last year with a decisive 64-47 victory at Hilo Civic at a time the Vulcans entered the game with a chance to gain the conference tournament with a win.
UHH is struggling mightily at 1-7 with five consecutive losses, all by double digits except for a 5-point defeat at home to Chaminade.
Additionally, junior post Asia Smith, the team’s leading rebounder, average 8.0 per game, is sidelined with an ankle injury and the Vulcans are in an offensive swoon. They are last in the PWC offensively, averaging barely 49 points a game, 10 full points behind Holy Names in 13th.
Sydney Mercer leads Hawaii Hilo in scoring, averaging 10.5 per game, Kim Schmelz, who played in just four games so far because of injuries, averages 8.3 per game.