If this was goodbye, then it wasn’t a sweet parting.
UH-Hilo’s men’s basketball hung for a half – led, actually – before having the doors blown off.
Dixie State surged to its 11th consecutive win Saturday, overwhelming the Vulcans in the second half for an 89-55 victory in St. George, Utah.
The first of five games for UHH (6-15, 5-9 Pacific West Conference) on the mainland in an eight-day stretch got off to a fine start before getting bumpier by the moment.
The Vuls led 22-11 on the strength of a 12-2 run midway through the first half, but the first-place Trailblazers (17-6, 14-2) used an 8-0 to get withing two before halftime, and they used a 13-0 spurt to bury the Vulcans in the second half 55-19.
Devin Johnson led the Vulcans with 19 points and nine rebounds.
He had 12 of those points in the first half. Cleo Cain added 14 points, ten of those in the first 20 minutes. Jared Roffler had nine rebounds.
Brandon Simister led the Trailblazers with 20 points, and also became Dixie State’s all-time three-point leader with his fourth trey of the night.
This is Dixie State’s final season in the PacWest.
In the women’s game, Dixie State opened the third quarter with a 16-0 run en route to a 72-52 win.
Freshman Allie Navarette had a monster game with 25 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to lead the Vulcans (6-11, 4-10).