HILO, Hawai`i--It was a tale of two cities, or in this case, two different basketball venues.

Over two months ago, with a team at full strength, the Hawai`i Hilo men's basketball team was soundly beaten in Honolulu by host Chaminade, 101-72. Tonight, at the Afook Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo, with over 600 rowdy fans cheering on a team with seven players shuttling in and out of the game, UH Hilo turned the tables on the Silverswords with a 94-86 win.

The Vulcans snapped a six-game losing streak with the victory, improving to 6-13 in the Pacific West Conference and 7-19 overall. Chaminade, still in the hunt for the sixth place and final conference tournament berth, fell to 10-9 in league play and 15-11 overall. 

The win for the Vulcans was huge, especially coming off a road trip where they lost five games in eight days against the top five teams in the conference.

"That was as gutty a performance as this team has ever had," UH Hilo head coach GE Coleman said after the game. "It would have been easy to fold up shop after all this group has been through this month and all season (injuries), but they stepped up and played at a very high emotional level against a very good Chaminade team."

The Vulcans had a number of heroes on the night, including a pair of seniors playing college basketball for the final time this weekend.

Hometown Randan Berinobis had a monster night with 25 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Guard Ryley Callaghan added 21 points and dished eight assists. Both hit four three-pointers. "Those guys played 39 minutes (Ryley) and 36 minutes (Randan) respectively," Coleman said. "They gave all their effort in front of their families tonight."

Devin Johnson added big numbers with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, despite fouling out. Will Burghardt came off the bench and tossed in 14 points and Eric Wattree added ten before leaving the game with five fouls.

Austin Pope led four Chaminade players in double figures with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists. Grant Dressler had a double-double with 19 points and 12 boards.

There were five lead changes and four ties in the first half before Chaminade took a 48-43 halftime edge into the locker room. UH Hilo, who hit five of their first eight three-point attempts, went cold late in the half, missing seven trey attempts in a row.

To start the second half half, Chaminade went on a 5-0 run in the first 45 seconds to push their lead to ten (53-43), their largest of the game. After a quick timeout by Coleman, the Vulcans came out on a 14-2 blitz, which included four treys in five times down the court. Cleo Cain's three gave the Vulcans the lead at 57-55 and the teams traded leads again after that for most of the rest of the game.

The Silverswords built a six-point lead with just under nine minutes left, but a Burghardt trey and 16-foot jumper cut the margin to two points (73-71). Moments later Berinobis followed with a three with 6:51 left to put UHH back up on the scoreboard (74-73). It would have been impossible to imagine at the time, but the Vulcans would never trail again.

The Vulcans had a fast break dunk from Berinobis with 25 seconds left, two huge free throws from Anthony Canencia with nine seconds left and a game clinching dunk from Berinobis with three tics left on the clock.

Playing at home is a big factor advantage for the Vulcans, who are now 6-2 in Hilo this year. "Our crowds aren't the largest crowds in the conference, but they get into it," Coleman said after the game. "Our guys love playing here."

Coleman's squad will get one final home match-up, hosting Hawai`i Pacific on Saturday. Start time is 7:30 p.m., with four seniors honored prior to the game (Callaghan, Berinobis, Trey Ingram and Arnold Silva).