Not much for long goodbyes, the Hawaii Hilo women’s team made short work of their last game with BYU-Hawaii, holding the Seasiders to a season-low 24.2 percent field goal shooting in a near wire-to-wire 65-55 Pacific West Conference victory Saturday
Not much for long goodbyes, the Hawaii Hilo women’s team made short work of their last game with BYU-Hawaii, holding the Seasiders to a season-low 24.2 percent field goal shooting in a near wire-to-wire 65-55 Pacific West Conference victory Saturday at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
It was the final game between the schools after BYU-H announced it will suspend its athletic program at the end of the season.
Freshman Sharlei Graham-Bernisto led the Vulcans with 17 points, making 11-of-14 free throw attempts, going 6-for-6 down the stretch after the Seasiders closed a 15-point deficit going into the fourth quarter.
“Pretty solid effort,” said UHH coach David Kaneshiro, “even thought we had the lead, we had a hard time keeping them off the boards at different points and that allowed them to get back in the game a bit.”
The Vulcans built the lead to 44-29 in the third quarter before the Seasiders made a run, using their defense to keep UHH without afield goal for a period of 7:44 that stretched from the final 5:26 of the third quarter into the early stages of the fourth.
BYU-H went on a 13-2 run and narrowed the gap to 46-42 before Asia Smith and Alexa Jacobs scored back-to-back hoops to get a little breathing room.
BYU-H stayed close, but could never get close enough the rest of the way to threaten the lead.
“It helps when they miss shots,” Seasiders coach Craig Stanger said of his team’s ability to get back in the game. “Defensively, we’re not a bad team, but at the same time, we aren’t a physical team, either and we gave away some points in the post position, probably because of that.”
The loss dropped BYU-H to 8-14 and 5-11 in the PWC, while Hawaii Hilo improved to 7-12 7-9 in conference play.
On their last trip around the conference, the Seasiders are now 3-6 in their final road games at conference schools.
Graham-Bernisto said her late efforts from the line that kept the Vulcans on top were all a part of her regular game.
“There was nothing different,” she said, “I always try to draw contact and pick up fouls when I can, we just wanted to be strong going to the basket and they were in a situation where they needed to get the ball back.”
The numbers were not pretty in the first half when UHH left the floor with a 29-23 lead while making just 9 of 29 field goal attempts, but lost in those numbers was the fact that the Vulcans were 4-for-7 from beyond the 3-point line, while holding the Seasiders scoreless in six attempts from long range.
Graham-Bernisto dropped in two of those long distance shots and made 3 of her 4 foul shots to lead her squad with nine points at the half.
The Vulcans were 7 of 8 from the foul line while the Seasiders were just 5 of 8.
Kim Schmelz had 12 points for the Vulcans, Sydney Mercer scored 11 and Asia Smith had nine points and nine rebounds.
UHH is off until Thursday when it host Dixie State in the final home game of the season at The Civic.
