HILO, Hawai`i—It wasn't pretty, but with the style that the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans play, don't expect any game to be a thing of beauty.

The Vulcans clamped down on defense and hit their free throws down the stretch to grind out a 74-67 men's basketball win over Hawaii Pacific on Saturday afternoon at the Afook-Chinen Auditorium. It was UH Hilo's fourth straight win and the Sharks' four consecutive loss.

UH Hilo is now two games above .500 overall (7-5) and in the Pacific West Conference (5-3). Hawaii Pacific dropped to 4-9 on the year and to 1-7 in the PacWest.

James Griffin led the Vulcans with 22 points and seven rebounds. Jordan Graves and Kupaa Harrison both had 15. Harrison also had six rebounds and four assists. Darnell Bettis led the Sharks with 16 points.

Neither team led by more than four points in a back-and-forth first half. The Sharks took a 33-31 lead into the break in a game that was dominated by defense on both ends of the court.

In the second half, Bettis scored nine points in the first five minutes to push the Sharks to a three-point lead, but a three-point play by Graves gave the lead back to the Vulcans at 45-42. That happened at the halfway point of the second half, and no could have guessed at the time that lead would hold up for the rest of the afternoon.

With 8:25 left, UH Hilo led 53-52, but the home team went on an 8-1 run to grab their biggest lead of the game (61-53) with about four minutes remaining. The eight-point margin was big in a battle that featured defense and each team using almost all of the shot clock before getting an attempt off.

Down the stretch, Griffin scored on a variety of shots and free throws and Graves nailed charity attempts to stave off the last Shark attempt, led by Lorenz Gordon-Haynes who scored almost all of his 12 points in the final minutes of the game.  

The Vulcans had nine steals and forced the Sharks into 18 turnovers. That helped them overcome a 39-29 deficit on the boards.

"It wasn't pretty, but again it was gutty," said Vulcan head coach GE Coleman after the game. "We have been pretty dead this week after a tough road trip and the first week of classes. But the guys stepped up and they will have to do so in an even bigger way this coming week."

UH Hilo will continue this three-game homestand with a Tuesday night game against Concordia and a Saturday contest versus Point Loma. Both games at the Civic will begin at 7:30 pm. Coming into Saturday, Concordia sits at second place in the PacWest Conference (7-1) and Point Loma is in first (9-0)—and ranked No. 1 in the west region.