HILO — Jake Kosakowski splashed seven 3-pointers, including three in a row at the top of the second half to help spark Hawai’i Hilo men’s basketball’s 87-82 victory over Biola Saturday night in Pacific West Conference action at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The Vulcans battled through an early eight-point deficit with everyone chipping in points until Kosakowski hit on his first long-range basket to jump ahead on the scoreboard at the 7:19 mark of the opening half. Biola responded shortly as Jessiya Villa hit a 3-pointer to tie the game up and snatched a steal followed by a pair of buckets by Julio Montes II to regain the lead for the final time.
Kosakowski landed two more 3-pointers in the final minutes before going back-to-back-to-back in the opening moments coming out of halftime.
“I think I shoot best when I don’t think and just go out there and play and feel the game out and that’s what I did — just trusted it,” Kosakowski said.
The seven 3-pointers are the most posted in a single game by Kosakowski in a Vulcans uniform and is tied for the sixth most in program history. The redshirt-senior also surpassed the century mark (101) to move to No. 9 in the Hawai’i Hilo all-time rankings — surpassing Riley Callagan’s (17-18) total of 96. Kosakowski’s career mark now stands at 224 with his time included at UC San Diego.Montes II also finished with a game-high 21 points along with six assists.
Saturday night was the best offensive performance posted by the Vulcans this season in terms of shooting percentage (.577) and free throw shooting (.889).
Hawai’i Hilo moved to 3-3 in PacWest play (10-6 overall) as Biola moved to a 5-3 conference record (11-5 overall).
Other notes
Fifth-year head coach Kaniela Aiona achieved win No. 70 to move past GE Coleman (13-20) to fourth all-time.
Nadjrick Peat totaled 10 points and grabbed six boards to move past Gene Arceneaux (85-86) and Kyle Bartholomew (00-03) to No. 6 all-time with 510 career rebounds.