SEATTLE, Wash.—It is not very often that a team goes 12 minutes without scoring and 17 minutes without a field goal, yet still has a fighting chance to win late in the game.

That happened on Friday night at the Brougham Pavilion in the Sodexo Classic, where Central Washington held off a cold-shooting, but feisty Hawai`i Hilo squad in the tournament's opening game, 84-79.

The Wildcats improved to 2-1 on the season with the victory, while the Vulcans dropped to 1-3. UH Hilo will take on host Seattle Pacific on Saturday at 7 p.m. Pacific (5 pm in Hawaii).

Despite an extremely long cold spell that resulted in a 23-point deficit, the Vulcans battled back to trail by just four points with 37 seconds, left before finally giving up the ghost.

The game began in normal fashion, with Central Washington holding a slight margin until 12:15 remained in the first half. That was when UH Hilo took its first lead, on a three-pointer by Trey Ingram (16-15). The Vulcans stayed in front, leading 25-21 with 8:45 to go in the first half after a conventional three-point play by Devin Johnson.

From there, the Vulcans couldn't find the bottom of the hoop for a very long time. They went the final nearly nine minutes of the half without a score while the Wildcats went on a 17-0 run to lead 38-25 at the break.

UH Hilo didn't warm up in the locker room during intermission. CWU scored the first three buckets of the second half to push their lead to 44-25 before Randan Berinobis' free throw broke the drought, three minutes and 13 seconds after the break. The Vulcans still didn't have a field goal as the Wildcats pushed their margin to 51-28 with 12:50 left.

With 11:35 remaining, Cameron Howell got UHH back into the scoring column with a basket from behind the arch. That made it an even 17 minutes in between baskets for the team in red.

Things didn't immediately turn around for the Vulcans, but they began to chip away at the deficit. With 6:19 left, a Ryley Callaghan three-pointer cut the 'Cats lead to 13 (61-48), and with 2:25 to go, free throws by Berinobis made the count 72-63.

With just under a minute to play, another Callaghan trey made it 81-75, and the senior guard then picked up a steal and fed Ingram for a three-pointer with 37 seconds remaining that pulled UH Hilo to within four points at 79-75.

But they would get no closer than that. The Wildcats scored twice, sandwiched around a UHH miss, and a final trey by Callaghan with three seconds left was not quite enough and just a little bit late, accounting for the final tally of 84-79.

Callaghan, who had just three points in the first half, had 19 points in the second 20 minutes, finishing with 22. He hit 5-of-9 three pointers, had four rebounds and four assists.

Berinobis had a season-high 16 points and seven rebounds, while Eric Wattree added 14 points, hitting 4-of-8 treys. Ingram had 13 points and five assists.

The Vulcans shot just 39 percent from the field, but hit 14 three-pointers and scored 54 points in the second half. They were out-rebounded by CWU, 41-28. Freshman guard Khalil Shabazz had 25 points to lead all scorers, and Faquan Niles had 17 points and 11 boards.

Seattle Pacific and Concordia (Irvine) played in the evening match-up in the pre-determined format.