BELLINGHAM, Wash.—What a difference one night can make.
24 hours after losing to the team that finished last in the GNAC last year, Hawai`i Hilo defeated the defending conference champions and GNAC favorite—on their own floor.
The Vulcans pulled off the stunner on Saturday night at Carver Gym, topping host Western Washington 80-76 behind
Ryley Callaghan's career-high 31 points. The Vulcans will leave the PacWest\GNAC Challenge with a 1-1 record and will play at St. Martin's on Tuesday night.
It was Hawai`i Hilo's first win over a Top 20 team on the road since
GE Coleman became the head coach and maybe in school history. The former Central Washington assistant coach (WWU's chief rival) is now in his fifth season at UHH.
The Vikings, a perennial NCAA tournament team that is ranked 19
th nationally in the pre-season poll, looked like they would do to the Vulcans what the hosts did the previous night to Notre Dame de Namur in a 87-45 blowout. Tonight, WWU ran out to a 23-9 lead just a little over ten minutes into the contest as the Vulcans began the bout by hitting only one of their first ten shots.
Transfer Trey Ingram, who saw plenty of the Vikings during his three seasons at St. Martin's, went on a three possession blitz, scoring seven points in a one minute span. He hit two field goals and a trey to pull UHH to within seven points at 23-16. Western would push their lead back out to ten points, but a trey by Eric Wattree and free throws by Denhym Brooke made it a four-point game (37-33) with just under a minute before the break. Ingram's 40-foot launch at the buzzer kept the contest at a three-point differential (40-37).
In the opening moments of the second half, Devin Johnson's basket pulled the Vulcans to within one point (40-39), but the Vikings answered with a couple of scores (47-41). With 12 minutes left in the game, WWU held a five point lead (55-49) before Callaghan got hot.
The senior point guard hit four treys during a span in which he scored 12 of UHH's 14 points, and his two free throws with seven minutes left gave the Vulcans their first lead of the night at 65-64. The teams then traded buckets, with UH Hilo taking a three-point margin after free throws and a trey by Ingram (72-69).
WWU's Trey Drechsel answered with his first basket of the game, a three from the top of the key to tie it again (72-72) with just under two minutes left. Callaghan nailed two more charity tosses to put the Vulcans back in front, but a few moments later Daulton Hommes put the Viks back up at 75-74 with 55 seconds remaining.
But Callaghan, a Washington native from Port Orchard, drained another long ball to give the Vuls a 77-75 lead with 35 seconds remaining. WWU would miss on their next possession, fouling Brooke on the rebound. He would hit one of two free throws with 21 seconds left, leaving the door open for the Vikings to win on a three-pointer.
But Hommes would get fouled and hit one of two (78-76) and UHH got the rebound. Callaghan was fouled again, hitting both free throws to clinch the contest with four seconds left.
Callaghan converted 11 of 12 free throw attempts and six of eight three-point launches. 25 of his points came in the second half.
Ingram had 20 points and Brooke finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Vulcans hit 21 of 25 free throw attempts and were 11 of 32 from three-point range. They only trailed the Vikings by three boards in the rebound battle (41-38), despite giving up plenty of height inside, which included WWU's Logan Schilder, a 7-footer who had 15 points and nine rebounds.
Hommes finished with 22 points and nine rebounds for the Vikings, and Deandre Dickson added 19 points and nine rebounds.
"As poorly as we played last night, I love that we bounced back the way we did tonight," Coleman said after the contest. "Ryley did not play well against Simon Fraser (87-75 loss) and he didn't have a great first half tonight either, but he took over the game in the second half. When he and Trey combine for 51 points, we are going to be alright," he said, tongue in cheek.
Ingram and the Vulcans will visit his former teammates on Tuesday at St. Martin's and will then head to Seattle for the Oak Harbor Freight Lines Classic, taking on Central Washington on Friday and host Seattle Pacific on Saturday.
