UH-Hilo’s men’s basketball team didn’t just need a win. It needed this win.
The Vulcans are going to have to beat teams with better records to get where they wants to go, and Friday night was a good start.
Naturally, it took an extra effort.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored 26 points with 11 rebounds Friday night, and Kameron Ng added five of his 13 in double overtime to lead the Vulcans to a 92-87 victory at Fresno Pacific.
“We play the way we’ve wanted to play and talked about playing, not giving up possessions,” coach Kaniela Aiona said. “Learning to win on the road is about being efficient. Coming away with a win is big for our young team.
And Aiona hopes his young team — which had lost seven of nine — can retain what it’s learned.
The Vulcans (13-11, 9-8 PacWest) finish their road trip Sunday at Dominan before playing their regular-season finale Friday against Chaminade at Hilo Civic. Then they turnaround and head back to Fresno, Calif., for the conference championships.
It was UHH’s first win against a team ahead of it in the standings since Jan. 13 at Academy of Art, it’s first win on the mainland in seven tries and it kept them above water in the Pacific West Conference.
“There were no doubts, it was just a matter of experience,” Aiona said. “Learning how to do it. Learning the process that’s going to work for us on these difficult road trips. We have to experience everything.”
Darren Williams finished with 18 points for UHH (13-11, 9-8), which is a full game in back of the Sunbirds in sixth place in the PacWest. Donald McHenry had 13 points and Max Kunnert added 11, including a big 3-pointer in the first overtime and a three-point play in the second one.
The top eight teams qualify for the conference tournament at The Special Events Center March 3-5.
In the women’s game, Mindi Kawaha scored 21 points with five assists as the Vuls beat Fresno Pacific 56-46, remaining in sixth place in the PacWest.
In their last three games, the playoff-bound Vulcans (13-8, 10-7) have held their opponents to 47, 46 and 46 points, respectively.
“We really stepped up the defensive effort in the second half,” Vulcans coach David Kaneshiro said. “The shots were not falling for us in the first half, but I told the girls that if we kept applying the pressure on defense, the offense would come around.”
Bree Olson had a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.
Softball
On opening day, UHH split a doubleheader against Western Oregon on in Friday in Kaneohe, Hawaii. The Vulcans took the first game 8-4 and dropped the second game 9-0 against the Wolves.
The Vuls play a nonconference doubleheader against Hawaii Pacific on Sunday.