HONOLULU, Hawai`i--Playing their third game in as many nights, the bruised and battered Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans succumbed to a physical University of Tampa squad, 92-80 at the Hawai`i Convention Center on Monday night.

It was the final game of the Hoops in Holiday Classic for the Vulcans, and the final contest of the 2017 calendar year. They will head into the holiday break with a 3-7 overall record, 2-1 in the Pacific West Conference. Tampa, a Division II team from the Sunshine State Conference, is now 5-6.

The Vulcans, who played for most of the game without senior guard Ryley Callaghan (ribs), were led by Callaghan's running mate, Trey Ingram. The fellow senior guard had 25 points, hitting 6-of-13 three-point attempts. Denhym Brooke added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Devin Johnson just missed a double-double with ten points and nine rebounds. Callaghan played just 11 minutes in the first half and did not see any action after intermission.

The tall and physical Spartans were paced by Pat Bacon's 28 points. Marcel Robinson checked in with 22 points and Duke Shelton, a 6-8 center, had 22 points and nine rebounds. 

"I thought we had a great effort against a very physical and talented team," said Vulcan head coach GE Coleman. "Without Ryley, that is a lot of scoring and experience to give up. Still, we may not have had the best execution tonight but I was very pleased with the effort."

That effort included a comeback in the second half and a positive start to the game.

After two nights of poor shooting, the Vulcans came out firing against the Spartans. UH Hilo jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes, thanks to three-pointers from Ingram and Eric Wattree. Coleman's team would lead 16-5 seven minutes into the game after Callaghan's only basket of the night, before Tampa would start to get going. They would go on a 10-0 run to crawl back and then began to pull away, taking a 39-34 lead into the halftime break.

The Spartans went on a 9-0 run to begin the second half and looked to pull away permanently from the Vulcans, leading 48-34. But an Ingram trey sparked an 11-0 Vulcan run and from there we had a ball game. A Brooke basket followed by a rare Brooke three-pointer tied the game at 54-54 with 10:25 remaining, and a Johnson inside basket gave the Vulcans the lead at 56-54. 

A few moments later, Wattree's three gave UHH a 59-58 margin, but when Robinson countered with a three-point play at the other end and Shelton followed with a vicious slam dunk, the Spartans would get the lead back and never trail again. UHH would trail by only three with 3:45 left after Ingram's sixth bomb from beyond the arch. But Bacon, who would hit 12  of 13 free throws on the night, had two conventional three-point plays in the final three minutes to help seal the verdict.

"I would like to have gotten a win tonight, but we had a strong effort and can now rest and get healed up," Coleman added. "We will take seven days off to get healthy and then start preparing for PacWest play, where it counts.