HONOLULU, Hawai`i—It was 78 degrees on Thursday night in Honolulu and probably warmer than that inside Moanalua High School when host Hawai`i Pacific tipped off against Hawai`i Hilo in the conference opener for both teams.

For the Vulcans, it might as well have been 20 degrees, or maybe colder.

UH Hilo shot 18 percent in the first half, falling behind by many as 22 points and could never fully recover on their way to a 74-60 loss to the Sharks. The Vulcans had just five baskets at the break, four of them from three-point range in a game that was a nightmare for the visitors in the first 20 minutes.

The Sharks moved to 3-1 overall, while UH Hilo is now even at 2-2 on the year.

The Vulcans turned things around in the second half, but the hole to climb out of was just too big.

This one started to get away from the Vulcans in the opening moments. The Sharks rushed out to a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes before Larry Bush and Kupaa Harrison hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it 10-6.

But UHH would score only three more baskets the rest of the half. They were 3-of-22 at their coolest and were 2-of-6 from the free throw line. By the time the half was over, the Vulcans were shooting 18 percent to HPU's 58 percent, and the Sharks were outrebounding their visitors, 28-9. The score was 36-16 at intermission.

The Vulcans had a 9-0 run early in the second half, with seven of those points coming from Bush. They had cut a 22-point Shark lead to just 12 on a Cleo Cain jumper four minutes in (41-29). They would slash the margin to 11 points on a Kaleb Gilmore trey a few moments later (43-32). The margin would be only eight after James Griffin's steal and lay-up (45-37).

The teams played evenly from there to the ten minute mark where HPU still led by eight (52-44). The game was physical and messy, with a number of fouls and two technical fouls called against the Vulcans.

UH Hilo then went cold again, scoring only two points over a five-minute span until Griffin hit a trey with  1:46 left. The eight-point deficit had by then increased to 13 at 65-52 and HPU locked in for the final tally of 74-60.

The Vulcans outscored the Sharks 44-38 in the second half, improved to 34 percent shooting and were 9-of-31 from behind the arch (29 percent). But Hawai`i Pacific shot 56 percent from the floor and out-boarded the Vulcans, 46-25.

Bush led UH Hilo with 15 points. Gilmore, Harrison and Griffin had 11 each. Griffin led the Vulcans with seven rebounds.

Jonathan Janssen led the Sharks with double-double numbers of 19 points and ten rebounds.

The Vulcans will try and get back on track on Saturday at Chaminade (3 pm) and then return home to host Fresno Pacific on Monday night (7:30 pm) at the UH Hilo Gymnasium.