HILO, Hawai`i—The Hawai`i Hilo Vulcan men's basketball team has already faced its share of adversity this season, having dropped five straight contests to begin the year 1-5.

Today, they looked adversity in the eye and swatted it away, surviving to claim a 68-63 Pacific West Conference basketball victory over Notre Dame de Namur at Vulcan Gym.

The victory gets the Vulcans on the board in conference play, improving to 1-2 (2-5 overall) and snaps a five-game skid. Notre Dame de Namur dropped to 1-6 on the year and they leave the Big Island 0-2 in PacWest action.

""We didn't hang our heads today when things got challenging," said Vulcan head coach GE Coleman. "We found a way to battle back and get the win."

This was a contest that featured just about everything, including a wild finish. There were 52 fouls called in the game, a stirring comeback by the visiting team and a key blocked shot that saved the Vulcans.

When it was all said and done, the Vulcans used a double-double by Brian Ishola (11 points, 12 rebounds), 22 points from Parker Farris and some key free throw shooting down the stretch from their seniors to pull out the win.

The Vulcans began the game cold, falling behind 7-0. They didn't get their first field goal until Ishola's basket at the 16:30 mark. But they began to heat up, scoring 11 of the next 12 points and taking the lead on Ryley Callaghan's trey (11-8) at 14:35.

UHH would never trail again in the first half, despite dealing with foul issues (three players with three fouls each). A three-pointer by Eric Wattree III, from deep in the corner, gave the home team a 13-point lead (28-15), and they still led by that same margin with 33 second left when Ishola banked one home. Only a deep trey at the buzzer by NDNU's Tre'Shaw King-Dunbar cut the lead to ten points at intermission (34-24).

The Argos helped their hosts by hitting only 12 of 24 free throw attempts in the first half.  Farris had 12 points in the first 20 minutes and UHH outrebounded NDSU, 28-17.

The Vulcans pushed their lead up to 14 points early in the second half (15:40) on a Darius Johnson-Wilson basket (42-28). But NDNU fought back with a 10-2 run and pulled to within six points (44-38) with 11:49 left on a three-point play by Michael Karimu. Free throws a few minutes later by King-Dunbar made it 46-41 and a trey with 8:45 left by Stephen Baity pulled the visitors within two points (46-44). Brian Ying's driving lay-up made it 49-48, and then the Argonauts tied the game after a Vulcan turnover and basket by Andrew English (53-53).

It was game on from there until the final buzzer.

Randan Berinobis converted a three-point play with 2:55 left and a pair of Callaghan free throws gave UHH a 60-55 lead with 1:43 to go. A Farris trey with 1:05 remaining kept the lead at five (63-58), but the second three-pointer in the final moments by King-Dunbar cut the lead to two digits with just over 30 seconds on the clock.

Berinobis hit two more free tosses moments later (65-61), but NDNU's Lance Page did the same with 23 seconds left (65-63). Then it got really dicey for the home crowd of 627.

With the Argonauts pressing, Ryan Reyes turned the ball over, but then rallied by blocking what would have been the game-tying shot. Reyes was also fouled, and converted both free throw attempts to seal the game. Berinobis added one more charity shot to account for the final total.

"We defended well, and got some clutch free throws down the stretch," Coleman added. "Our seniors stepped up in the final minute and made some big plays (Reyes, Berinobis and Farris). We are a team that is in a growth process, we are taking baby steps and have a long ways to go, but we will be a good basketball team."

Johnson-Wilson joined Farris and Ishola in double figures with 12 points, as did Callaghan with 10. Berinobis had eight points and eight rebounds. The Vuls outrebounded the Argos, 46-35.

King-Dunbar led NDNU with 21 points. But the visitors converted only 23 of 42 free throw attempts (55 percent).

The Vulcans will remain home and get a rematch next Saturday, hosting Chaminade at 5 p.m. at the Civic.