HILO, Hawai`i—What a difference 48 hours can make.

Hawai`i Hilo played lock down defense and parlayed that into their first Pacific West Conference victory, a 72-57 triumph over Fresno Pacific on Monday night at the Vulcan Gymnasium.

It was the third game in five nights for both teams, and both left the floor with 1-2 records in conference play. The Vulcans are 3-3 overall while Fresno Pacific is 2-4.

Denhym Brooke had a season-high 19 points and James Griffin had 18 for UH Hilo, but it was the Vulcans' defense that made the difference tonight—two days after they gave up triple digits to Chaminade in a 114-101 defeat.

"We have spent about three hours since Saturday just working on defense," head coach GE Coleman said after the game. "We played really well tonight on that end of the court against a very athletic team. We also played pretty well on offense for our most complete game of the season."

The Vulcans forced Fresno Pacific into 21 turnovers and held the Sunbirds to 37 percent shooting from the floor.

UH Hilo, playing in front of 641 on-campus fans, led for almost the entire game. They took a 7-6 margin on a Kupaa Harrison shot just a couple of minutes in, and soon went on a 8-0 run to take an 18-8 lead. They would never trail after that. Griffin had 10 points to get the Vulcans to that 10-point lead, two of his buckets coming from behind the arch.

FPU would later cut that margin to three points (21-18), but Griffin answered with another trey. UH Hilo would lead 29-22 at the break, having forced the Sunbirds into 13 first half turnovers.

The Sunbirds would cut the margin to three points again early in the second half, but a Brooke dunk and another Griffin basket pushed the lead back to six points. Later, a Larry Bush steal and basket made it 45-33, and Bush added a trey moments later to raise the count to 48-36. Bush then dished inside to Brooke for a 14-point margin (50-36), the largest of the night to that moment.

The Sunbirds would get no closer than 11 points after that, and the Vulcans sealed the contest on another Brooke dunk for the final points of the night.

The Vulcans shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and were 52 percent for the game. Cleo Cain joined Brooke and Griffin in double figures with 10 points off the bench, while Harrison added nine points and five rebounds. Griffin had six boards to lead the Vulcans, while Bush had five assists to lead the home team in that category.

Toby Christensen led the Sunbirds with a season-high 19 points and he also had eight rebounds. Aamondae Coleman had a double-double for FPU with 13 points and 11 boards. Elijah Hill added 12 points for the Sunbirds, who have now played five of their six games on the road.

The Vulcans will continue action with an exhibition game on Saturday at the University of Hawiai`i at 7 pm, before returning home on Dec. 14 against Western Oregon (noon).