SAN DIEGO, Calif.—The UH Hilo women's basketball team ran into a red-hot Point Loma squad on Saturday afternoon at Golden Gymnasium, falling 86-58 to the Sea Lions to wrap a four-game mainland road trip.

The victory was the fifth in a row for Point Loma, who is now 19-3 overall and 13-2 in the Pacific West Conference. The Vulcans dropped their third straight game on the trip (after winning their opener at Dixie State) to drop to 5-12 overall and to 5-9 in conference play.

Kim Schmelz had 25 points for the Vulcans to lead all scorers, hitting 5-of-7 three-point attempts. She was the only UHH player in double figures.

The Vulcans came out of the gates matching the Sea Lions basket for basket, in fact they led for almost the entire first quarter, taking a 20-16 margin on a three-pointer by Schmelz with 2:08 left. But PLNU then went on a 10-0 run to end the period to take a 26-20 lead into the short break.

Sydney Mercer scored the first basket of the second period to make it 26-22, but the Sea Lions answered with a 7-0 run and would begin to pull away from there. The second-place squad would go into intermission up 50-33 and Hawai`i Hilo would get no closer than 14 points after that, early in the third quarter.

Mercer and Sharlei Graham-Bernisto finished with eight points each, while Alexa Jacobs added seven points and four assists.

Point Loma was led by the sizzling trio of Roya Rustamzada (22 points), Alex Brunk (17) and Sydney Tonack (15). Rustamzada hit 8-of-12 shots from the field and had 11 rebounds, Brunk nailed 6-of-7 field goal attempts and Tonack made 7-of-9.

UH Hilo now returns home to face Fresno Pacific on Thursday. The game will be played on campus at Vulcan Gymnasium, start time is 5 pm.