HILO, Hawaii—No. 8 nationally ranked Alaska Anchorage is perennially one of the top NCAA Division II women's basketball teams in the country, and they played the part on Saturday night at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium cruising past Hawai`i Hilo, 78-39.

The Seawolves improved to 10-1 on the season with the non-conference win, while the Vulcans dropped to 1-6. Autummn Williams, a Division I transfer from Arkansas Little Rock, led all scorers with 19 points, while Sydney Mercer led the Vulcans with 11 points and seven rebounds.

The Seawolves, whose only loss this season has been to Division I University of Portland (66-57), scored the first 13 points of the game. The Vulcans had ten scoreless offensive possessions before Vanessa Mancera got the home team on the scoreboard with a trey from the top of the key just short of six minutes into the game.

UHH had a difficult time getting an open shot in the first 10 minutes, and took the quarter break down, 24-4. They had 10 turnovers in the period and converted just one field goal (1-for-9).

The Seawolves, who reached the Division II national championship last season (falling to Lubbock Christian), grabbed their largest lead of the first half early in the second quarter (32-7) on a Williams basket. But the Vulcans played UAA evenly the rest of the quarter, in fact they outscored their visitors 17-16 for the period.  Mercer had nine points in the quarter as the Vulcans went into the locker room down, 40-21.

The Seawolves took the reins again in the third quarter, outscoring the Vuls, 18-4. The fourth quarter was closer to even again (20-14 UAA), but the damage was done. By the time the 40 minutes was over, all 11 UAA players in uniform had entered the scoring column.

"I was proud of how we played at times," said UHH head coach David Kaneshiro. "We were trying to do the right thing, it just didn't always work out against a team of this caliber. I was very proud of our effort and thought we played two pretty good quarters."

UAA controlled the boards (45-29), including 20 on the offensive end. They forced UHH into 25 turnovers and had 10 steals in the game.

Kim Schmelz, in just her second game back after missing four contests with an ankle injury, had eight points for UHH. Tara Thompson (12) and Hannah Wandersee (10) joined Williams in double figures for the Seawolves.

"I have faith in our group," Kaneshiro added. "We are improving and working very hard at that."

Kaneshiro won't have any time to dwell on this loss, as they will return to Pacific West Conference action on Monday, hosting Dominican at the Civic Auditorium. Start time is 5 p.m.

"Dominican is a very good team," the head coach confirmed. "We will be ready to go."