SAN RAFAEL, Calif.—UH Hilo shook off injuries to three top players and the challenge of playing on the road, forcing 38 turnovers to gut out a 75-54 men's basketball win over Dominican on Monday afternoon at the Conlan Center, closing out the 2018 calendar year.

The Vulcans moved to 4-5 overall and to 2-3 in the PacWest, in the first of three road games on this trip. The Penguins fell to 5-7 on the year and to 1-5 in conference play.

Devin Johnson scored 19 points, 17 of those in the first half before getting injured early in the second half. He came off the bench four minutes into the game, and missed only one shot all night (8-of-9). When he left the game, he joined James Griffin and Cleo Cain on the sidelines—both of whom were in street clothes. Johnson played just 14 total minutes.

The Vulcans resorted to suffocating defense and hot second-half three-point shooting to pull away from the home team. The 38 opponent turnovers is a season-high for the UHH defense, and UH Hilo's 20 steals in the game is a school record. There are no records available unfortunately for turnovers forced.

"That is a pretty great effort in trying circumstances," said head coach GE Coleman after the game. "38 turnovers is a lot and has to be some kind of record. I was proud of the guys for stepping up, especially after Devin went down. With the amount of injuries and guys we have out, to get a road win in the PacWest is always good. We flew around and were able to disrupt them with our pressure. We showed some grit and mental toughness."

Kupaa Harrison had 15 points and seven rebounds for the visitors. Jalen Thompson, after a slow start, finished with 13 points (5-for-8 second half) and Jordan Graves added 12 points to go with five assists and five steals. The Vulcans had just 12 turnovers on the offensive end, finishing with a +26 turnover differential.

The Vulcans missed their first three shots of the game and trailed 5-0 in the early moments. After the first media timeout, Johnson entered the game and immediately scored on a reverse lay-up to tie the contest at 9-9. And he was just getting started.

The 6-7 senior would go on to bank home 17 points in the first half, missing just one shot from the field (7-for-8). With the game tied at 31-31 with 1:38 left in the half, Johnson swished a shot in the paint and then finished the half with a dunk to send the Vulcans into the locker room with a 35-31 lead.

The Vulcan defense also played a part in grabbing the intermission lead, forcing the Penguins into 18 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play.

A little over three minutes into the second half, Johnson scored his 19^th point on a dunk, but came down awkwardly and injured his leg. But the Vulcans didn't fold. Kaleb Gilmore and Thompson nailed three-pointers to give the Vulcans their biggest margin to that point (43-35) just five points after intermission.

The Vulcans continued to roll from there, hitting a total of six three-pointers in the second half. They held Dominican to just one second half trey, and scored a total of 32 points off of forced turnovers in the game. The Penguins turned the ball over 20 times in the second half.

Cedric Thompson, the fourth leading scorer in the PacWest at 17.5 points a game, led the Penguins with 16 points.

The Vulcans continue the road trip with a Wednesday rematch at Fresno Pacific. The Vulcans defeated the Sunbirds earlier this year in Hilo, but FPU just dealt Chaminade their first loss of the year today, 74-72.