HILO, Hawai`i—Never estimate the value of height in the sport of basketball.
The visiting Concordia Eagles, with four players over six feet, dealt the smaller Hawaii Hilo Vulcans a 76-63 defeat on Tuesday night at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
Allie Navarette, UH Hilo's tallest player at 6-0, led the Vulcans with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Fellow 6-footer
Patience Taylor had a season-high 15 points and 5-11 freshman
Maddie Beck had a career-best 11 points, hitting 4-of-5 shots.
Michaela Vanderklugt (6-foot-1) led Concordia with 24 points and Riley Friauf (6-foot-1) had 22 points and nine rebounds. Kennedy Fulcher 6-foot-2) had 14 points and seven boards for the Eagles.
That trio often worked to find the match-up that wasn't against Navarette, Taylor or Beck—UH Hilo's tallest players. They worked the ball until there was a mismatch—or Vanderklugt and Fulcher would knock it down from long range.
In the first half, the Eagles were tallying points from what seemed like unlikely sources—their "bigs" shooting from long range. Vanderklugt had three treys and Fulcher had a pair. Additionally, the Eagles were shooting at a 64 percent clip from the field.
Still, the Vulcans stayed close with a big first half from Navarette. The 6-0 post came off the bench for the first time this year and knocked down 15 (including her own three-pointer). Two free throws from Navarette gave UH Hilo a 13-12 lead late in the first quarter, but Concordia answered to take a 21-16 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 41-34 margin at the break.
In the third quarter, the Vulcans cut the lead to four points after a Taylor basket, but the Eagles answered with a 13-4 run and would go on to lead 62-48 at the end of three periods. UH Hilo wouldn't get closer than nine points in the fourth quarter.
Concordia cooled off a bit in the second half, but still ended up shooting 49 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range. On the plus side, the Vulcans had just eight turnovers on the night, but could only drain 2-of-17 three-point attempts. They shot 36 percent from the field.
The Vulcans will wrap up this three-game homestand on Saturday night, hosting Point Loma at 5 pm.
