The opportunity is out there, dangling within sight for the basketball squads at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. ADVERTISING The opportunity is out there, dangling within sight for the basketball squads at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The
The opportunity is out there, dangling within sight for the basketball squads at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
The weekend brings both ends of the Pacific West Conference to Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium for a couple of games that can heavily influence the ultimate conclusion to the season — for better or worse — for both the men’s and women’s teams. These two games will complete the first half of the conference schedule and send the teams on the road for a demanding second half of the schedule.
First comes Holy Names, at the bottom of the conference for both genders, then on Saturday it’s Hawaii Pacific, alone in first place for the men, one game out of first place for the women.
The challenge is heightened, because after this weekend, the Vulcans will play seven of their remaining 10 games away from home.
“We have to do everything we can to take advantage of the situation,” said men’s coach GE Coleman. “We understand what’s out there and we need to do everything we can to help ourselves.”
The Vulcans’ men are 6-8 and 4-4 in the PWC, with the opportunity to close out the first half at 6-4 which, duplicated in the second half, would almost certainly guarantee a berth in the postseason conference tournament.
Coach David Kaneshiro’s women’s team is 3-5 in conference (3-8 overall), after winning two in a row, the last one a breathtaking overtime victory at BYU-Hawaii in which sophomore Kim Schmelz led a late rescue with 18 of her 28 points in the final seven minutes of regulation and overtime. The Vulcans had been down 12 with less than three minutes to play when she began pouring basketballs through the hoop and she finished the job in overtime of an eventual 79-72 victory.
If the women’s team could close the first half 5-5, the shot at a playoff berth would be realistic, but with seven of the last 10 games on the road, 4-6 at the break would make it a daunting challenge. Last season, they were able to finish 10-10 after an 0-5 start, so maybe anything is possible.
“We definitely have the mindset to get to the conference tournament,” Schmelz said, “but at this point, the focus has to be day-to-day, or even more, getting better as a team in each practice, that’s what we need to do and if we can, we’ll be okay.”
Kaneshiro pointed out in her remarkable closing run against the Seasiders, that Schmelz wasn’t doing it by herself.
“She wasn’t forcing it,” he said, “and it started with a couple live ball turnovers that got it going, the ball got kicked out to her and she took advantage. The thing is, the whole team was aggressive and she had some teammates who made the plays to get her the ball.
“The best thing to take from it is that we did it as a team.”
Kaneshiro’s team benefitted from the return of junior post Asia Smith, who was back after a foot injury. He is hopeful that senior Lauren Hong may be cleared to play Thursday after a concussion, but he expressed doubt that post Patience Taylor, with a cast covering a thumb injury, would be ready.
Holy Names (1-14/1-8 PWC), has lost six in a row to UHH, but its lone win in conference play was nine-point victory at home against the same BYU-H team that pushed the Vulcans into OT over the weekend.
For the men’s team, Coleman wasn’t hearing any talk of a comfortable game followed by a difficult game.
“Anyone who played for us last year has to remember Holy Names (2-14/1-8 PWC) beat us (80-78, in Oakland), so there can’t be anyone thinking anything is going to be easy for us.
“Anytime you can win a road game in an NCAA conference like we were able to do, it can be a confidence builder, no question,” he said. “But the other part of that is losing home games, we just can’t let that be acceptable.”
That’s a reference to the last two home games, tight losses to Azusa Pacific (81-77) and Concordia (77-69), both teams ahead of the Vulcans in the standings.
But Coleman may have discovered some vital depth in the win at BYU-H when sophomore Anthony Canencia came off the bench and started making things happen defensively.
“Anthony completely changed the game to our benefit when he came in, in the first half,” Coleman said. “This is a very popular kid on our team who earned more minutes and will be taking a bigger role.”
The other player of the game was senior Parker Farris who had a career high of 36 points against the Seasiders, 22 in the second half, which earned him conference player-of-the-week recognition.
Farris has scored more than 30 points three times this season and his average is up to 22.8, good for second in the PWC behind the 24.6 mark of Cal Baptist’s Michael Smith. Farris is 12th in the nation in scoring and 16th in free throw percentage (.908).
The women’s game tips off at 5 p.m. with the men following at 7:30.
